Even though the Super Bowl is still a few days away, NFL Draft season is officially kicking off for the Dallas Cowboys. Now that the Senior Bowl is in the books, we're just a few weeks away from the NFL Scouting Combine taking center stage in Indianapolis and a few short months from the big night.
Obviously, we won't know who it'll be until Roger Goodell says it aloud, but it'll be fun take the next two months to speculate. All we know is that the Cowboys will likely target defense with their two first-round picks, but ESPN's Matt Miller went outside the box for their first selection in his new mock draft.
With the No. 12 overall selection, Miller had Dallas selecting an Ohio State defender, but not one of the two Cowboys fans are pulling for. Both Arvell Reese and Caleb Downs were off the board, so he pivoted to Buckeyes linebacker Sonny Styles, a rapid riser since the college football season started.
Eight picks later, they selected Clemson EDGE T.J. Parker to really fortify the defensive front. The Cowboys ranked dead last in points allowed per game in 2025, leading to Matt Eberflus being canned, so Jerry Jones is hoping the new draft capital can give new defensive coordinator Christian Parker some major building blocks.
Dallas Cowboys come away with Sonny Styles and TJ Parker in Matt Miller's later mock draft
There's an argument to be made that you can swap the order of Parker and Styles here due to positional value, but to each their own. Styles is actually one of my favorite prospects in this draft class, and if you watched Ohio State play, you would see exactly why teams are so enamored with him.
As Miller noted, the potential tandem of Styles and DeMarvion Overshown would be one of the more versatile and athletic LB duos in all of football, which is needed. The Dallas linebacking core was awful last year, as Kenneth Murray was awful, Logan Wilson was a total dud, and Shemar James was solid.
The 6-foot-4, 241-pound linebacker moves like a safety, which is partially because he used to be one. His freakish athleticism is the main reason good in coverage and a good run stuffer, but he's also a great tackler. This is the type of linebacker who would elevate the entire defense just by drafting him.
As for Parker, he fills arguably the biggest need on this Dallas defense: edge rusher. It's been that way since Micah Parsons was traded. The Clemson product had a down year, but took the Senior Bowl by storm and could be the perfect running mate for Donovan Ezeiruaku up front.
This is a dream scenario for Cowboys fans, so here's hoping it happens.