The tug of war between position need and the best player available is going to be a fascinating watch for the Cowboys.
The Dallas Cowboys will enter the 2026 NFL Draft armed with two first-round picks.
The Cowboys' first selection is at No. 12, and then they own the Green Bay Packers' pick in the 20's.
Given how poorly the defense played this season under Matt Eberflus, the needs are glaring and, for most, obvious.
As such, most fans and media have made the decision that no matter what, the Cowboys simply have to go defense to try and plug holes that plagued the team in 2025.
Our own Mike Fisher has his theory of BAA (his label for 'best available athlete') and BPA (what the scouts call 'best available player').
In short, pick the best player who is on your draft board when it comes time to pick. Don't pick based on need.
As Fish says, "Never pick a position. Always pick a player.''
And for Cowboys COO Stephen Jones, setting up your draft board with a key emphasis on one side of the ball over the other isn't the way to go.
“I think that's where you make your biggest mistakes,” Jones said. “We were planning on taking a defensive player when we picked CeeDee Lamb. You got to put the board up true. It's got to be quality of player one after the other.
"Now, if there's a guy we really need versus a guy who's sitting in there really close, then we reserve the right to make that decision. You certainly don't want to reach just to scratch an itch. So, we'll put our board up like we always do."
That seems reasonable. ... except for the build-in contradiction.
Read the Stephen quote again: 'We were planning on taking a defensive player.''
Isn't that exactly what he (and we) are saying not to do?
Hopefully, the Cowboys won't be picking based on pure need, so there needn't be a world where Dallas is hellbent on picking a defensive player in the first round.
That's when you can get into trouble. So, Fish's BPA/BAA theory seems to be the way Dallas is leaning as it approaches the draft.
But Stephen added what else goes into looking at players based on need, and what can happen when you put rose-colored glasses on a particular position need.
"Whether it's your coaches, whether it's your scouts, everybody knows, and you tend to try to find more good in some of the things that you might need," Stephen added. "Whether it's a pass rusher, corner, linebacker, you want to make sure you're not looking too hard to find all his good qualities and overlook maybe some of the things that could hurt him. So, we're aware of that as well."
So we have a lay of the land on how the Cowboys will approach a draft with two first-round picks.
Most want two defensive players, say at linebacker and corner. Maybe pass rusher too.
But Stephen has made it clear that Dallas won't be pigeonholing itself into picking one position over the best available player - or at least that what he claims is the plan.