The Dallas Cowboys have begun mandatory minicamp as players look to establish themselves onto the roster, but not every player will be safe from eventual cutdowns.
The Dallas Express previously evaluated the offensive talent on the roster and predicted where players would be slotted on the depth chart when the regular season begins.
Now, it is time to look at the Cowboys’ defensive talent and predict who will fill each of these positions.
Cornerback
CB1: DaRon Bland
CB2: Trevon Diggs
CB3: Shavon Revel Jr.
CB4: Kaiir Elam
CB5: Caelen Carson
CB6: C.J. Goodwin
The Cowboys have major injury concerns at the cornerback position entering the 2025-26 season, but a fully healthy group can be extremely effective with the strong versatility on the roster.
Bland and Diggs will open the season as the team’s clear top cornerbacks, meaning the variance will come from the players further down this depth chart.
Dallas has invested significant capital in both Revel and Elam throughout this offseason, spending a third-round draft selection on Revel and trading late-round picks for Elam.
Each of these players has the potential to contribute to Dallas in the upcoming season as well, with Revel being considered one of the biggest steals in the draft and Elam being a former first-round pick.
Finally, the Cowboys will likely bring both Carson and Goodwin into the season as players who can contribute on both defense and special teams.
Carson is entering his second season in the league but was a former fifth-round pick on a cheap contract, meaning Dallas will likely keep him around as a player who can continue to develop in his role.
Meanwhile, Goodwin recently re-signed with Dallas and has been one of the franchise’s premier special teams players over the past few seasons, giving him an incredibly high chance to make the team in some capacity.
Safety
FS1: Malik Hooker
SS1: Donovan Wilson
FS2: Markquese Bell
SS2: Juanyeh Thomas
Dallas will likely enter the season with a somewhat small group at safety to accommodate an extra defensive back in the corner room.
Hooker and Wilson will enter next season as the incumbent starters at both the free and strong safety positions. Both players participated in all 17 games last season and combined for 163 tackles and three interceptions.
The Cowboys did little to add to the safety room this offseason, offering Bell another chance as the team’s secondary free safety behind Hooker.
Bell has shown an ability to compete at a high level on the field over the past two seasons, collecting 100 tackles in 26 games played during that span.
Thomas will be marked as the secondary strong safety on the team, but his role is expected to be much different than in previous seasons.
Thomas has reportedly taken a substantial number of snaps at the nickelback position during recent workouts, indicating that the Cowboys expect him to fill Jourdan Lewis’ role from last season.
Playing in the nickel is a major role for defensive players, as many opposing offenses feature the best wide receiver on the team catching snaps out of the slot position.
Now, Thomas will seemingly be tasked with keeping those players in front of him.
Dallas will likely keep multiple safeties on the practice squad to account for injuries at the position, but these should be the four main players taking snaps in that room for the team.
Defensive End
DE1: Micah Parsons
DE2: Dante Fowler Jr.
DE3: Marshawn Kneeland
DE4: Donovan Ezeiruaku
DE5: Sam Williams
The Cowboys’ defensive end position is interesting. The team possesses a lot of talent but must find a way to manage each player’s desire to play.
Parsons stands out as the clear top option for this position. A contract extension is expected to be in place by the start of the season, meaning he will be available to play for Dallas in Week 1.
After Parsons is Fowler, who fills a very specific role on the team as a pass rusher but does not provide any resistance as a run defender.
Fowler will only play on clear passing downs but is too impressive as a pass rusher to be moved further down on the depth chart.
Kneeland fills in the third slot after performing well in his rookie season.
These solid performances will give Kneeland the advantage to start the season, but both Ezeiruaku and Williams could make jumps into that third position by the end of the year.
Ezeiruaku was a second-round pick and has already shown impressive flashes during voluntary offseason workouts, providing an indication that he will move up in the depth chart by the end of the season.
Finally, Williams has put together a solid few seasons in the NFL, but recovering from a torn ACL is difficult in this league and will make it incredibly hard to crack into this group of edge defenders.
Defensive Tackle
DT1: Osa Odighizuwa
DT2: Mazi Smith
DT3: Solomon Thomas
DT4: Jay Toia
Dallas invested a large contract to bring Odighizuwa back in free agency and his skills will be relied upon heavily to carry this group of defensive tackles.
Odighizuwa is coming off the best season of his career and should continue to improve, which is something this team will need heading into next season.
After Odighizuwa, there is not too much talent at the defensive tackle position for the Cowboys.
Smith is entering his third season in the league and improved massively during his sophomore season, but the Cowboys will still need more from the 23-year-old nose tackle.
The Cowboys lack a player who has both real size and skills at the nose tackle position, but Smith has the chance to secure that position with growth at both levels.
Thomas will likely fill the third spot on this piece of the depth chart and will play a role more similar to Odighizuwa as an interior pass rusher who can also help slow down the rushing attack during certain points of the game.
Finally, Toia is looking like the biggest competition for Smith at the nose tackle position, as both players will be competing for one true spot on the field.
Toia has reportedly impressed the Cowboys coaching staff in voluntary workouts and is seen as a dark horse candidate to move up in this depth chart. Smith stands out as his main competitor in this role.
Linebacker
LB1: Kenneth Murray Jr.
LB2: Marist Liufau
LB3: Jack Sanborn
LB4: Damone Clark
LB5: Shemar James
Demarvion Overshown immediately stands out as the player missing from this group.
However, Overshown is still recovering from multiple torn ligaments in his knee and will likely miss, at minimum, the first six weeks of the upcoming season.
As a result, he will not be included in the initial predictions for the Cowboys depth chart.
The biggest concern with excluding Overshown is that the Cowboys have little proven talent at linebackers outside of the former third-round draft pick.
Dallas will likely rely on Murray as the main linebacker to begin the season after acquiring him from the Tennessee Titans in exchange for a pick swap.
Murray has been solid for portions of his five-year NFL career, but he has also struggled to remain consistent and has been graded by Pro Football Focus as one of the worst linebackers in the entire league.
Liufau will likely slot right behind Murray and is looking to continue his growth after a solid rookie season. He collected 50 tackles and 1.5 sacks while playing in all 17 games for the Cowboys.
However, Liufau is still just a sophomore in the NFL and could experience some growing pains at the position.
Following these two players, the Cowboys will rely on some combination of Sanborn, James, and Clark, though none of these players has consistently produced in the NFL.
Sanborn has played three seasons in the NFL with the Chicago Bears and has put together solid showings in each season.
However, Chicago still moved on from Sanborn despite his cheap contract, which suggests that he may not be ready to play at a high level.
The good news for Sanborn is that former Bears Head Coach Matt Eberflus is now the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator, so there is some familiarity with the system that could help him see the field.
James and Clark, who are unlikely to see the field in the upcoming season, will fill the final two spots in this position.
Clark is expected to make the Cowboys’ roster but should not be expected to see the field consistently. The team has played him sparingly over the past few seasons with little indication that he will see the field again.
Finally, James is a fifth-round rookie who put up solid numbers at Florida, but inexperience at the position is often difficult to overcome when other players in the room are competing for the same role.