Ranking the Cowboys 2026 Roster: From 30-21

Now, we are on to Chapter 4!

For the third consecutive season, we enter training camp in California by launching our big series here at #Sturmstack.

The idea – in the spirit of the NFL Top 100 – is to rank the Cowboys. There are 90 Cowboys in training camp, of course, and once we figure out the final roster of 53 and add several to the injured list, one to the suspended list, and a few more to the practice squad who won’t get claimed elsewhere, we can assume 60 or so Cowboys are in their plans.

But, how do we set the list and in what order of priority? If we had to line them up, 1-60, how would that even look?

Let’s find out.

I assembled a list of respected members of the Cowboys Media to help me rank this roster. There will be nine ballots cast to create our list. Those who agreed to participate in this task are the returning wise men from 2025:

• ✅ Jon Machota, The Athletic

• ✅ Pat Doney, NBC-5 DFW

• ✅ Jeff Cavanaugh, DLLS Cowboys

• ✅ George Dunham, The Ticket

• ✅ Saad Yousuf, The Athletic

And our three new special contributors:

• ✅ Patrik Walker, DallasCowboys.com

• ✅ Nick Harris, Fort Worth Star Telegram

• ✅ Joseph Hoyt, Dallas Morning News

Each of them kindly filled out the roster sheet, 1-60, and the composite results of the nine ballots (including mine) will determine this season’s rankings.

The methodology is hopefully simplified. There have been many ways to explain it in the past, but now, we have reduced it to the following:

“There are many ways to rank a roster and the most simple way is this: line up the best 60 players on the Cowboys camp roster from the very best, most indispensable player and football asset in the front of the line. And then the second player you line up next will be the most valuable player besides the first guy. The third guy is next and more valuable and indispensable than everyone you have but those first two. And so on...”

In short, to rank 1-5, you would imagine an expansion draft where you can only protect five players on your roster. Which five would you protect? Those are your top five, of course. You can do that all the way down to 60. In fact, you are invited to play along if you’d like.

Here are the first three chapters that have already dropped:

Now, today, we wonder on to chapter 4!

Today, we will release our next 10 players, No. 30-21.

Some of these guys are high-level prospects and some of them are starters who you don’t feel great about. But, this is another key spot on the roster as you have 22 starters on every team. The 20’s is where you can see how solid your squad is.