The first two days of the 2026 NFL Draft are officially in the book. So far the Dallas Cowboys have been busy.

They made two trades in the first round, moving up and then down, and ultimately came away with Caleb Downs and Malachi Lawrence. Early in the second round they dealt a fifth-round pick to acquire veteran linebacker Dee Winters, and then they took Jaishawn Barham in the third round.

These are important moves as things relate to the upcoming season for the Cowboys, but there is still work to do.

Remaining Dallas Cowboys Selections

As things stand the Cowboys have four selections to play with on Day 3. They have two extra fourth-rounders that the Eagles gave them when Dallas moved down from 20 to 23 overall, and they have dealt away all of the three fifth-round picks that they began the draft with. Two were spent to move up from 12 to 11 to select Caleb Downs and the other was swapped for Dee Winters.

How do you feel about the Day 3 ammunition? The Cowboys are going to be quite busy early in the fourth round and that is going to be the serious bulk of what they do barring any other trade down the road.

The latest FC Dallas injury report is out ahead of their match against the Seattle Sounders. See who is out, who is questionable, and who will be missing for the hosts.

Here is the official list from MLS and FC Dallas1:

Seattle’s availability report:

Suspended: none
Out: Yeimar Gómez Andrade (hamstring), Paul Arriola (adductor), Pedro de la Vega (knee), Nikola Petkovic (knee), Cristian Roldan (head)
Questionable: Kim Kee-hee (calf), Albert Rusnak (hamstring), Ryan Sailor (knee)
International duty: none

BDS Notes:

This being the third game in seven days for FC Dallas, rotation was likely always going to be part of the story going into Seattle. Now layer in the injuries, and it becomes a requirement.

The big ones are on the questionable side with both Petar Musa and Logan Farrington coming in on the questionable side of things. Following the Minnesota game on Wednesday night, it did appear that Musa was carrying an injury of sorts when he exited the game in the second half. Head coach Eric Quill couldn’t fully comment on his status after the game, but seeing him land on the questionable side is what I was expecting.

Farrington on the other hand, that one is a bit of a surprise. It will be interesting to see if Quill opts to hold both players out and go with a different look up top this weekend from the jump, or if he rotates a bit more with his lineup.

My gut tells me we may see an attacking trio tomorrow night of Santiago Moreno, Joaquin Valiente and Patrickson Delgado. Which would be…wild.

Seattle on the other side, they’re dealing with several big injuries for this weekend. Cristian Roldan, Paul Arriola, and Yeimar being out is a bit of a surprise, though there were reports that Arriola was not in training this week.

1 https://www.mlssoccer.com/media-resources/stats-and-gameday

UCF EDGE Malachi Lawrence is going to Jerry World.

On Thursday night, Lawrence was selected by the Dallas Cowboys with the 23rd overall pick of the 2026 NFL Draft, becoming the fifth first-round draft pick in Knights history. It also made him the highest non-quarterback draft pick in program history, the first UCF defensive lineman selected since defensive tackle Kalia Davis in 2022, and the first UCF defensive end/EDGE selected since Bruce Miller in 2011.

The selection also reunites Lawrence with another former UCF player, Demeitre Brim, who was hired by the Cowboys as their assistant defensive line coach back in February after spending the 2025 season with the Knights as a defensive analyst. So, Brim got to witness Lawrence record 28 tackles, 11 tackles for a loss, seven sacks, three passes defended, and two forced fumbles on his way to a First-team All-Big 12 honor last season.

“He did an unbelievable job of working consistently and just continuing to get better in a year with Mike Dawson and Alex Grinch, and really happy for him,” UCF coach Scott Frost said of Lawrence on April 21.

The Cowboys were a team particularly in need of pass rushers after finishing with the seventh-least sacks in the NFL last season. This was on top of them leading the league in passing yards allowed and rushing touchdowns allowed, though the latter is a shared title. Dallas also allowed the second-most passing touchdowns and the 10th-most rushing yards in the league last season.

Lawrence was not the Cowboys’ only roster addition to try to help address these defensive issues. Earlier in the draft, with the 11th overall pick, they selected Ohio State safety Caleb Downs, but what is of more concern for Lawrence is their trade to acquire pass rusher Rashan Gary from the Green Bay Packers back in March. With Gary’s starting experience with the Packers last season likely cementing him as a starting pass rusher on one side of the defense, that leaves just one starting spot on the other side for Lawrence to compete for.

Barring the Cowboys drafting any more pass rushers on Days 2 and 3 of the draft, Lawrence is most likely going to need to contend with the likes of Donovan Ezeiruaku and Sam Williams for that starting job. Both players were not regular starters last season, but still took the field in every game while logging a few starts.

However, Lawrence seems to be up for that challenge.

“They’re gonna receive, shoot, a dog, like a great player, like somebody that’s gonna come in and work from day one, great motor, and just bringing that pass rush ability to your team,” Lawrence said about what he would bring to the team that would draft him at UCF’s Pro Day.