Cowboys Coaching Connections Could Shape the 2026 NFL Draft

When I started looking at the Dallas Cowboys coaching staff, one thing stood out to me that I don’t think fans are talking about enough.

The Cowboys suddenly have multiple assistant coaches with very recent college football connections, and that matters because once the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft is over, teams slightly drift away from their rankings and start trusting the coaching staffs inside knowledge.

The thing is right now, the Cowboys have plenty of insider information when it comes to some of these prospects. The connections to three college programs that produce NFL talent every year could help with some picks.

Georgia Bulldogs

SMU Mustangs

UCF Knights

If Dallas starts stacking top 100 picks, the connections to these universities could quietly shape their draft board.

The Georgia Connection Might Be the Biggest One

Two Cowboys assistants bring very recent ties to Georgia.

Robert Muschamp

Chidera Uzo-Diribe

That means for fans that the Cowboys have coaches who don’t just watch the Georgia film, they worked with some of these players every day.

This is the kind of insight I think matters on draft day. Scouts can evaluate film and athletic testing, but coaches know things that don’t show up on stat sheets.

Things like who practices the hardest, learns the playbook fastest, leads the locker room, and handles adversity the best.

Those details become extremely valuable once teams start making Day-2 and Day-3 draft decisions.

When it comes to the Georgia Bulldogs, that defense alone sends multiple players to the NFL.

So if the Cowboys start targeting Bulldog prospects later in the draft, it shouldn’t surprise anyone.

Don’t Overlook the SMU Pipeline

Another interesting connection everyone should ay attention to is assistant coach Scott Symons, who was the defensive coordinator at SMU.

That means we can expect Dallas to have detailed knowledge about several players coming out of the Mustangs program.

SMU has quietly produced a number of athletic defensive players and skill-position talent in recent years, and mid-round picks are where the Cowboys have historically done some of their best work.

A UCF Connection on the Staff

The third program on this list of connections to watch is UCF.

Cowboys assistant Demeitre Brim recently worked as a defensive analyst for UCF. This is a connection I feel could give the Cowboys some great info on players no one knows about in the draft process.

The thing is, smaller programs like UCF regularly produce fast, athletic defenders, especially edge rushers and defensive backs, and what do the Cowboys need?

If the Cowboys are looking to add more speed to the defense, and what team isn’t, players from UCF could become intriguing targets once the draft moves to the middle rounds.

The Connections Matter Most After the First Round

The first round of the draft is normally pretty straightforward. We all know most teams are choosing from the same pool of consensus prospects.

Once the draft starts reaching Day 2 or Day 3, things change pretty quickly. That’s where teams start trusting their own evaluations and relationships more than community draft evaluations.

If a coach has firsthand knowledge of a player, why wouldn’t that opinion carry a lot of weight in the draft room? That’s exactly where the Cowboys might benefit.

If Dallas ends up trading down from pick 12 or 20, they should add multiple selections inside the top 100. This is the range we will see teams rely heavily on coaching evaluations, scheme fit, locker-room character, developmental upside.

And the Cowboys coaches could have direct insight into players from three different programs.