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.

Defense still wins championships, which is perhaps why the 2025 Dallas Cowboys were nowhere near a Super Bowl in 2025.

As the 2026 NFL Draft approaches, Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones’ full, undivided attention should be on improving his team’s defense. There was a microscope on the Cowboys’ defense in 2025 after Jones traded All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers before the start of the season. The roster did nothing to validate that decision in the season that ensued.

Dallas ranked near or at the bottom of the league in several statistical categories on defense while simultaneously ranking near the top of the league in several offensive statistics. That ultimately led to a 7-9-1 record that was not enough to make the playoffs, and the Cowboys fired defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus after the end of the season.

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Jones made some moves to address the Cowboys’ defense in the offseason. He signed safeties Jalen Thompson and P.J. Locke to reinforce the secondary, while defensive end Rashan Gary came over in a trade.

There’s still plenty of work to do to build up the roster in the 2026 NFL Draft. Fortunately, the Cowboys have two first-round picks to get the momentum started early.

Cowboys 2026 NFL Draft picks

The Cowboys have eight picks in the 2026 NFL Draft. Here’s the complete list:

• Round 1, Pick 12
• Round 1, Pick 20 (from Packers)
• Round 3, Pick 92 (from 49ers)
• Round 4, Pick 112
• Round 5, Pick 152
• Round 5, Pick 177 (compensatory pick)
• Round 5, Pick 180 (compensatory pick)
• Round 7, Pick 218 (from Titans)

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Cowboys NFL draft grades

This section will be updated after the Cowboys make their first selection.

Cowboys 2026 NFL Draft needs

Edge rusher

The rumors are true: the team that traded away elite edge rusher Micah Parsons ahead of the 2025 season needs a new edge rusher on their roster. Despite finishing with the ninth-best pass-rush win rate, per ESPN, the Cowboys also finished tied for the seventh-fewest sacks in the NFL in 2025.

Dallas’ 2025 sacks leader, Jadeveon Clowney, had 8.5 sacks last year and is still a free agent. Behind him was James Houston with 5.5 sacks despite not starting a single game and playing fewer than 30% of Dallas’ defensive snaps. Even after trading for Gary, the Cowboys could use more help on the edge to improve their overall defensive shortcomings.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Stanley Cup playoffs’ must-watch first-round series has had its first did-you-watch-that game.

Wyatt Johnston scored in double overtime at 12:54 a.m. on Thursday morning to give the Dallas Stars a 4-3 win and 2-1 series lead over the Minnesota Wild going into Saturday afternoon’s Game 4 between the Central Division heavyweights and Stanley Cup contenders.

If Minnesota loses this series, it’ll be thinking all summer about the five power plays it had in the third period and overtime in Game 3.

After rallying from a 2-0 deficit on goals by Marcus Johansson, Joel Eriksson Ek and Michael McCarron, the Wild had two chances to turn a 3-2 lead into a 4-2 lead on early-third-period power plays, only to fail miserably.

They then had three power plays to break a 3-3 tie — two in overtime — after Matt Duchene scored a power-play goal to tie it. That came after Duchene, on the same shift, denied Matt Boldy a shorthanded goal with a hustling backcheck and stick check.

“Your heart goes in your throat,” Duchene said of his goal-saving backcheck. “It’s a ‘holy s—’ moment, for sure.”

The Wild drew two power plays in the first overtime, one that carried into the second, and the closest they came to scoring was Kirill Kaprizov hitting the post.

So you just knew what was going to happen when Dallas earned a second consecutive power play after dead-tired rookie Danila Yurov airmailed a puck high into the stands in double overtime.

On the ensuing power play, Johnston scored his second career overtime winner by extending his stick and redirecting Miro Heiskanen’s twice-deflected shot past Jesper Wallstedt, sending what had been a loud, anxious crowd, on its feet throughout both overtimes, home disenchanted.

“It hit Moose’s finger first,” Wallstedt said of Marcus Foligno. “He’s just trying to do his job and block it. I still had a good sight on it and was going to grab it, and then it goes off of Johnston’s blade and then his shaft and then over my shoulder. That’s what happens.”

When a best-of-seven series is tied 1-1, the winner of Game 3 holds an all-time series record of 245-124 (.664).

“Whether we were 4-for-4 on the power play tonight or 0-for-whatever we were, that doesn’t change how we have to approach the next game,” Quinn Hughes said of the Wild’s 1-for-7 power play. “We’re gonna need it again. And obviously felt like we had our looks to be the difference and just didn’t come.”

As far as Wild playoff clunkers go, this looked like it was going to be classic from the outset.

The game ops brought the electricity during one heck of a hype-up pregame that had the crowd buzzing. Minnesota Vikings star Justin Jefferson brought it during one electric “Let’s Play Hockey” that had the crowd erupting.

But in just 85 seconds, the Stars silenced the crowd with a Mikko Rantanen power-play goal after one of the Wild’s most gentlemanly, least penalized players ever, Jonas Brodin, was whistled for tripping.

By the 13:48 mark, it was 2-0 Dallas, with the crowd growing even more tense as Boldy was in the trainer’s room after being plunked on the back of the head by Stars captain Jamie Benn’s stick.

After Johansson cut the deficit in half late in the first, Boldy reemerged in the second and put forth a highlight-reel shift to help the Wild tie the game five minutes in. He weaved through the neutral zone, split three Stars defenders between the circles and laid the puck on a tee for an Eriksson Ek goal into a gaping net.

“Just trying to make a play,” Boldy said. “I didn’t think I had a shot, so just tried to get around them. Ek did a great job getting open.”

But after McCarron gave the Wild a 3-2 lead seconds after they had killed consecutive minors, including a five-on-three, they had two golden opportunities to extend their lead to on power plays, and the Stars’ penalty kill extinguished both.

Johnston’s goal came during his 30 minutes, 12 seconds of ice time, most amongst Stars forwards. Hughes logged 43:47, while Heiskanen logged 43:05.

“If you win 6-1 or lose in triple overtime, it’s the same, and it’s going to be a long series for a reason,” McCarron said. “And right now, it seems like it’s neck and neck between the two.”

‘Tons of penalties’

When Boldy’s clearing attempt during a Wild penalty kill soared over the neutral zone, over the offensive zone, over Jake Oettinger and over the glass from 180 feet away, it looked like it would spell disaster for the Wild.

Instead, it turned into a nightmare for Dallas.

Boldy’s delay-of-game penalty late in the second period — with Ryan Hartman already in the box for cross-checking Radek Faksa — gave the Stars 41 seconds of a five-on-three power play. The Wild penalty kill stood firm, though, as Jake Middleton won a puck battle with Duchene in the corner to get a critical clear.

Then, just as the clock ticked down on Boldy’s penalty, Jared Spurgeon beat Dallas’ Mavrik Bourque to a puck behind the net and nudged it to Brodin, who found Nick Foligno for the outlet pass, while McCarron trucked his way up the middle of the ice. Foligno found him in stride at center ice, and McCarron sniped a shot through a Thomas Harley screen to Oettinger’s blocker side — the fourth such Minnesota goal in the last two games — to give Minnesota a 3-2 lead and send the home crowd into a tizzy.

Still, the Wild were hardly celebrating their penalty kill. One of the league’s most disciplined teams in the regular season, Minnesota gave Dallas eight power plays, and the Stars scored on three of them.

“It’s been tons of penalties on both sides,” McCarron said. “First round, sometimes it’s like that. The refs are amped up just like us and maybe trigger-happy. But at the same time, I mean, not ideal. They got three power-play goals, and it’s probably the difference in the game.

“Taking a lot of minors right now. We’ve talked about it. We’re gonna continue to harp on it, and hopefully this is a lesson for us.”

Quieting the crowd early

The Stars know well how raucous Grand Casino Arena can get, and were just hoping to weather the storm early on. They did one better, with Rantanen’s early power-play goal quieting the home crowd almost immediately.

“It’s always (like that on) home ice, everybody’s really excited to play in front of their fans,” Rantanen said before the game. “They’re going to be really humming at the start, so we’ve got to match the intensity, the physicality. … It’s about executing under pressure.”

Dallas did. Minnesota didn’t. An uncharacteristic offensive-zone tripping penalty by Brodin — essentially shoving Sam Steel to the ice along the boards — left the Wild shorthanded, and the Stars didn’t waste any time. Jason Robertson caught Brock Faber flat-footed as he streaked down the left wing, and Rantanen blew past Boldy on the other side. Robertson hit the net-crashing Rantanen with a perfect pass, and the big Finn chipped it past Wallstedt for the early lead.

Talk the talk, but not walk the walk

Marcus Foligno gave the Stars bulletin board material after the Wild’s Game 2 loss in Dallas by saying that the Stars can’t “hang” with the Wild at five-on-five and thus try to goad them into power plays.

Well, Foligno has not had a good series at five-on-five, and that continued in the first period Wednesday, when he got the puck in the slot and instead of turning and putting it on net, sent a sloppy pass a few feet in front of him toward a surprised McCarron.

Duchene picked it off to trigger a two-on-one with Robertson, who ripped home his third goal of the series for a 2-0 lead.

To the dismay of the crowd, the goal came after Benn’s hit to the back of Boldy’s head went uncalled, same as a Benn high-stick to Yurov’s face shortly before.

Robertson did take a penalty late in the period that led to a Wild power play. The No. 1 unit, without Boldy and Mats Zuccarello, was a mess, but the second unit came out and cut the deficit in half when Bobby Brink recorded his first career playoff point by setting up Johansson’s first goal in 11 playoff games and 17th of his career.

Zuccarello, Trenin and more injuries

The Wild entered the game already without Zuccarello and Yakov Trenin, who were considered game-time decisions with upper-body injuries. Zuccarello missed his second straight game (after receiving a Game 1 elbow to the face from Tyler Myers) and Trenin his first following an open-ice hit by Colin Blackwell in Game 2.

Brink and Nico Sturm played in their place.

Then in the first period, the Wild looked like they had lost Boldy.

Boldy was in the slot in his own zone, turning his body in an attempt to block a shot when Benn came flying across, his stick making contact and knocking Boldy to the ice. Boldy was briefly checked out by the Wild training staff and headed to the bench and down the tunnel after, he said, the concussion spotter pulled him. Before that, he appeared to show the referee a video clip on an iPad of the play. Wild coach John Hynes had an animated conversation with the referees, too.

There was no penalty on the play.

Foligno had an injury scare, as well. Late in the second period, he went down to block a shot on the penalty kill, taking a puck off the leg. But Duchene fell on top of him, and a bloodied Foligno laid on the ice for a few moments. Duchene came back and took a swing at Foligno, who was ready to fight. Foligno tossed off his glove and helmet as he left the ice and headed to the dressing room. The veteran winger did return for the start of the third period, but the refs didn’t know why Foligno’s face was bloody. They called a major so they could review it, then rescinded the penalty on Duchene.

The Wild have Black Aces Hunter Haight, Ben Jones and Matt Kiersted practicing with the big club just in case they’re needed in the playoffs.

“What we did was we just had some guys come over that, you know, they sit in the meetings. They have an idea what’s going on, skate with the guys,” Hynes said. “So it’s more not that they’re going to come in the lineup tonight, but it’s more to get them up to date with meetings and what’s going on with the series. I think it’s important for them, if they’re called upon.”