(Note: The content provided is based on opinions and/or perspective of the DallasCowboys.com editorial staff and not the Cowboys football staff or organization.)
INDIANAPOLIS— Trevon Diggs is gone. DaRon Bland suffered another season-ending foot injury. Shavon Revel is heading into only his second season and first healthy offseason. Caelen Carson has battled both injury and the previous defensive regime's decisions, and all of this is why the Dallas Cowboys have questions that need answering at cornerback in 2026.
As they wrap up meetings and scouting at the 2026 NFL Combine in Indianapolis, they've put in plenty of work meeting with prospects at the position, and that research will continue over the next several weeks. That, however, can not be their only approach to trying to upgrade that depth chart as a whole for defensive coordinator Christian Parker.
Parker believes Revel "has it all" and can be special, and Brian Schottenheimer believes Bland can get back to All-Pro status and hopefully remain healthy. None of this should prevent the Cowboys from looking at viable, reasonable impact options at cornerback as free agency prepares to get underway, though.
Welcome to this year's Open Market series (full series is inside the link).
What's Here
Reddy Steward, Josh Butler: Both Steward and Butler are ERFAs and, as a rule, don't have the freedom to negotiate with other teams. In other words, they don't have much of an option against the Dallas' wishes for them, should the Cowboys opt to keep them around. An ERFA can not, under any circumstances, negotiate with another organization, and their pay will likely be the league minimum.
That said, both have shown strong upside, Butler in 2024 and Steward in 2025, and it would be wise to keep both around for depth and for the chance to compete as a starter (pending other free agency signings and the draft haul). Butler is now fully healed from his torn ACL that cost him much of last season, and Steward emerged as one of the most pleasant surprises on an otherwise poor defensive unit; and I wonder if he'll be considered an option at safety, one that can drop down to nickel on-demand.
Corey Ballentine, C.J. Goodwin: Both Ballentine and Goodwin are unrestricted free agents, and there's not much to say here when considering Ballentine doesn't have much film to go by in his first year with the Cowboys, and Goodwin remains a special teams ace that isn't asked to do much on the defensive side of the ball, but who perennially matters to the team's third unit — making the odds great he'll be back in 2026.
What's Out There
Note: These players will be unrestricted on March 11, barring a newly-signed deal with their incumbent team prior to that date. (Market value, when available, provided by Spotrac)
Eric Stokes: Stokes' time at Georgia predates the coaching of Robert Muschamp (and his uncle Will Muschamp) and Chidera Uzo-Diribe, but there's another connection Stokes has to Dallas, and that's the fact his former pass game coordinator in Green Bay, Derrick Ansley, is now the defensive backs coach & passing game coordinator for the Cowboys. Having had a resurgent season with the Raiders in 2025, and still just 26 years old, Stokes started in all 16 games and was far-and-away the best corner in Las Vegas.
The former First-Team All-SEC cornerback will need to work on his ability to take the ball away, but his coverage is back to being some of the best you'll see on film — the projected asking price needing to come down a smidge, though … because takeaways matter, and he has to prove he can get them in the NFL. (Market value: $7.4M annually)
Tariq "Riq" Woolen: Few things are better than a good ole fashioned homecoming story. Woolen is hot off of a Super Bowl victory with the Seahawks and entering free agency with the Cowboys, his hometown team (Woolen is from Fort Worth) needing help at the very position he's made a name for himself playing.
One thing he has over Stokes is the fact he had six interceptions as a rookie alone, 12 INTs total through his first four seasons. Woolen also has a proven ability to be both [mostly] durable and a starter at the NFL level and, all told, along with the fact he's also just 26, and with that shiny thing on his finger, pushes his projected asking price a bit higher than Stokes'. (Market value: $8.2M annually)
Decobie Durant: Another young corner that can take the ball away, Durant is indeed two years older than Stokes and Woolen, but still on the right side of 30. Named the Black College Pro Football Player of the Year in 2025, and a former First-team All-MEAC cornerback in 2021, Durant has plenty to offer in 2026.
Things were not the same for the Cowboys once they allowed Jourdan Lewis to vacate the nickel corner position in Dallas via last year's free agency spree, and Durant could instantly make things better there. With 29 starts through the last two seasons, four INTs, a pick-six, 15 pass deflections and 80 combined tackles, Durant is ready-made to do work for Christian Parker while DaRon Bland and Shavon Revel man the boundaries. (Market value: $8.2M annually)
Montaric Brown: Speaking of Jourdan Lewis, one of the young corners he was tasked with, and did, mentor last season was Brown out in Jacksonville. A former First-team All-SEC cornerback for Arkansas led him to get the nod as a Jaguars' late-round pick in 2021. He's since evolved into an NFL starter that is exceedingly sticky in coverage and uses his above average wingspan and 77th-percentile hand size to be consistently disruptive.
In 2025 alone, Brown racked up 12 pass break ups, taking his total over the past two seasons in that category to 20, adding three interceptions to that stat line along with 126 combined tackles. A boundary corner by nature, bringing in Brown, at his projected price, does create the problem of deciding if Revel is ready to be fully unleashed, or if Bland can stay healthy an entire season; and the latter feels a much more pressing talking point nowadays. (Market value: $7.4M annually)
VIP Club ($17M+ annually)
- Jaylen Watson
- Jamel Dean
- Coby Bryant
- Nahshon Wright
Yeah, that definitely says Nahshon Wright, and kudos to him for putting up a monster year in reuniting with Al Harris for the Chicago Bears, but his price tag also means there will be no reunion with Dallas in 2026. That same pricing, or similar, is why, though each of these names deserve mention, none of them will likely don a Cowboys' uniform next season.
