NFL draft month is finally here, and it won’t be long until we see what the Dallas Cowboys plan to do with two first round picks at numbers 12 & 20, but I wanted to look ahead a bit, and give a run-down of what comes after this month.
After the NFL draft takes place Thursday, April 23rd through Saturday, April 25th, things will start to head up with the rest of the offseason and if you don’t know or don’t know what that is or when it will take place, let’s take a look at that.
The Dallas Cowboys’ offseason workout schedule is coming together, with dates for OTAs and mandatory minicamp ahead of the 2026 NFL season.
First Day Back
Things are actually going to start before the draft starts, believe it or not, as voluntary workouts will begin on Monday, April 20th, four days before the draft is set to take place.
It will pretty much take place in three different phases.
Phase One (Beginning April 7-20): Focuses on meetings, conditioning, and physical rehabilitation.
Voluntary Veteran Minicamp: Held prior to the Draft (April 23-25, 2026), often for teams with new head coaches.
Phase Two (Approx. May 11): Individual and group drills, plus on-field workouts. Phase Three/OTAs (Late May-June): 10 days of Organized Team Activities involving 7-on-7, 9-on-7, and 11-on-11 drills, with no live contact.
Real Fun Starts
All the above is just a quick run down what will happen when the players have the chance to early, but the real fun starts at OTAs starts on Monday, June 1.
The organized team activities will run through Thursday, June 11, with six designated dates for the workouts.
Those workouts will take place on June 1, Tuesday, June 2, Thursday, June 4, Monday, June 8, Tuesday, June 9, and Thursday, June 11.
We then get into the most informative stuff, like July, where George Pickens, who has had no talks with Jerry Jones and the boys after an extension, has to make a decision.
July 15th is the deadline for franchise-tagged players to sign a multi-year extension, so if it does not happen, and he does not sign the tag, things will get ugly.
Say whatever you want, but the Dallas Cowboys offense with Pickens and CeeDee Lamb are a top five offense in football, and he needs to be on the field to help that defense just like last year.
Dallas would be targeting Texas Tech pass rusher David Bailey.
Dallas had the worst defense in all of football a year ago, averaged over 30 a game, but gave up nearly 35.
It should be at least a touch better this season and if they can just become average the Cowboys won 7 games last year, no reason they would not win double digits this season.
We will see what happens with Pickens. Either he will play on the tag, sit, or get a new deal, because teams are not going to give up two first round picks to Dallas and trade for him. That is the only way he would be able to sign with a new team for 2026.
After all that stuff is finished, then football is able to start again. Training camp will start in late July, followed by early August and the Hall Of Fame game and preseason.
The NFL draft will help the Cowboys, but I just want the summer to get here quicker and see how everything else unfolds, because if they do the right things in the draft and take care of a few other things, this team could be better than expected this season.
I think as of now they win 10 games, but if they nail the NFL draft and get Pickens in the building, they will win 11 or 12 regardless of what you think about them.
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