Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past week, you’ve likely heard about the blockbuster Micah Parsons trade that sent the superstar pass rusher to Green Bay in return for Kenny Clark and two first-round picks. This trade had more to do with the contract dispute that was created by Jerry Jones and the Cowboys’ refusal to work out a contract extension with their star player (resulting in him holding out and eventually demanding a trade) than a sign that they’re willing to blow the team up and start from scratch. This gives me pause as to what the Cowboys see for their future, though, because at no point did I think the Cowboys would ever actually trade Micah, as this team, despite their struggles in the postseason, is a talented group that I assumed saw themselves as legit championship competitors, and Micah was a big part of that.
Without Micah, do the Cowboys just blow up their team and start over? They have a bunch of talented pieces that they could get a king’s ransom for in the trade market, which could set them up nicely for the future, and it’s not like their team has any realistic shot at winning their division with their current roster anytime soon, with the Eagles and the upstart Commanders looking to dominate the division. I could easily see the Cowboys tanking and selling off their team for draft picks (assuming Jerry Jones’ ego can get out of the way and the Cowboys can make decisions that actually make sense long-term).
In order to get an idea of what a Cowboys tank would look like, we need to use the premier (and only) NFL simulator and boot up Madden 26 franchise mode to simulate the tanking timeline of the Dallas Cowboys. This is a concept we’ve done at Operation Sports for the Steelers and Dolphins already for 2025.
Year One Of The Tank
I recreated the Micah Parsons trade with the Packers to start off my franchise sim, and was also able to trade two more players, Daron Bland and Malik Hooker, before the season. I ended the pre-season fire sale there and simmed year one, assuming that the Parsons-less Cowboys would miss the playoffs, which they did. They actually did much worse than I thought. Even with Dak, Lamb, and Diggs, they only won five games to end the year at a disappointing 5-12 on the season.
After the season ended, that’s when the real tanking began. We started with a deal that sent Dak Prescott to the Rams to replace the recently retired Matt Stafford along with Kenny Clark in return for the second pick in the 2026 draft (we already owned the third pick which was our original one, and the ninth pick which was the Packers’), the 34th pick in 2026 draft and their first pick in the 2027 draft.
We then got a huge haul for CeeDee Lamb from the Panthers, which included their next three first-round picks (including the 29th pick in 2026). We also traded Trevon Diggs to the Saints for a 2027 first-round pick, which wrapped up our big trades for the year (we made some smaller trades, but nothing too noteworthy). These three trades represented the top-most valuable players on the team outside of the O-line, which I made a concerted effort to protect in this roster rebuild as I kept the three Tylers (Guyton, Booker, and Smith) as the young heart and soul of this team, hoping to fast-track the rebuild with a quality O-line.
Unfortunately, all of these trades created a massive 175 million dollar cap penalty for the 2026 offseason, which effectively kept us sidelined in free agency in the 2026 offseason. So our main additions had to come in through the draft.
I uploaded the draft classes for each year’s draft, so there was a clear number one prospect in 2026… Arch Manning, whose performance last Saturday will prove to be a fluke and whose talent is too good to gamble that he would fall to pick number two in the draft so I packaged some of my picks and jumped up to the first pick in the draft to nab Arch Manning as the Cowboys quarterback of the future (as a Giants fan that sentence makes me want to throw up!).
Full 2026 Draft
1: QB Arch Manning
3: WR Jordan Tyson
9: EDGE T.J. Parker
34: TE Max Klare
35: RB Jeremiyah Love
60: SS Kamari Ramsey
67: RT Ray Colangelo
75: CB J.C. Ball
77: WR Eric Rivers
129: K Dominic Zvada
131: P Dom Williamson
196: WILL Sam Gardner
222: QB Quintin Valentine
2027 Depth Chart
| QB | Arch Manning | Joe Milton III | Quintin Valentine | |
| RB | Jaydon Blue | Jeremiyah Love | Deuce Vaughn | Phil Mafah |
| WR-X | Jalen Tolbert | Jonathan Mingo | Ryan Flournoy | |
| WR-Y | Jordyn Tyson | Jalen Cropper | Eric Rivers | |
| TE | Jake Ferguson | Max Klare | Brevyn Spann-Ford | |
| LT | Tyler Guyton | Asim Richards | ||
| LG | Tyler Smith | Nathan Thomas | ||
| C | Cooper Beebe | |||
| RG | Tyler Booker | Kendrick Green | ||
| RT | Ray Colangelo | Ajani Cornelius | ||
| LEDGE | Donovan Ezeiruaku | MarShawn Kneeland | ||
| REDGE | T.J. Parker | |||
| DT | Osa Odighizuwa | Jay Toia | Zion Logue | |
| SAM | Marist Liufau | Michael Barrett | ||
| MIKE | Josey Jewell | Shemar James | ||
| WILL | DeMarvion Overshown | Sam Gardner | ||
| CB | Shavon Revel Jr. | Upton Stout | Caelen Carson | J.C. Ball |
| FS | Markquese Bell | Ashtyn Davis | ||
| SS | Kamari Ramsey | Anthony Johnson Jr. | ||
| K | Dominic Zvada | |||
| P | Dom Williamson | |||
| LS | Trent Sieg |
Year Two Of The Tank
Despite a good rookie year from Arch Manning, where he threw for 3731 yards 24 touchdowns and 13 picks for a decent rookie passer rating of 91.3 as well as 306 rushing yards, the team ended up with just a 2-15 recorded which wasn’t entirely unexpected expected with such a young roster, and gave us a second straight year with the number one pick in the draft.
Before the draft, though, we were finally able to enter the free agency market and added a few key pieces in right tackle Brian O’Neill, EDGE rusher B.J. Ojulari, middle linebacker Dorian Williams, and free safety Bryan Cook, but the big additions came from the draft.
In the draft, we once again secured the consensus number one pick at a position of need by selecting Ohio State standout Jeremiah Smith with the first pick in the draft. We then stocked up on defense, seven of our next eight picks, which included three first-rounders. The majority of these players would end up being starters by 2028.
Full 2027 Draft
1: WR Jeremiah Smith
4: FS Koi Perich
20: WILL Sammy Brown
28: C Ben Moore
32: MIKE Jack Stockton
33: DT Dominick McKinley
65: SS Xavier Filsaime
72: DT Bret Randolph
97: EDGE D.J. Gordon
129: RG Jayvon Brinkley
161: LG Elijah Thomas
193: TE Cody Barnett
2028 Depth Chart
| QB | Arch Manning | Joe Milton III | Quintin Valentine | |
| RB | Jaydon Blue | Jeremiyah Love | Phil Mafah | |
| WR-X | Jeremiah Smith | Jalen Tolbert | ||
| WR-Y | Jordyn Tyson | Jalen Cropper | Eric Rivers | |
| TE | Jake Ferguson | Max Klare | Cody Barnett | |
| LT | Tyler Guyton | Asim Richards | ||
| LG | Tyler Smith | Elijah Thomas | ||
| C | Cooper Beebe | Ben Moore | ||
| RG | Tyler Booker | Jayvon Brinkley | ||
| RT | Brian O’Neill | Ray Colangelo | Ajani Cornelius | |
| LEDGE | Donovan Ezeiruaku | MarShawn Kneeland | D.J. Gordon | |
| REDGE | T.J. Parker | B.J. Ojulari | ||
| DT | Osa Odighizuwa | Dominick McKinley | Jay Toia | Zion Logue |
| SAM | Marist Liufau | Sammy Brown | ||
| MIKE | Dorian Williams | Jack Stockton | Shemar James | |
| WILL | DeMarvion Overshown | Sam Gardner | ||
| CB | Shavon Revel Jr. | Upton Stout | Caelen Carson | J.C. Ball |
| FS | Koi Perich | Bryan Cook | ||
| SS | Kamari Ramsey | Xavier Filsaime | ||
| K | Dominic Zvada | |||
| P | Dom Williamson | |||
| LS | Trent Sieg |
Year Three Of The Tank
Year three was a little disappointing, as we won only seven games, which was a massive improvement over the last year, but didn’t match up with the level of skill that our team had by that point. Arch was nearing a 90 overall, Jeremiah Smith won the NFC Offensive Rookie of the Year award with over 1,100 yards and 13 touchdowns receiving, and Jaydon Blue was running wild, surpassing 1,200 yards and eight touchdowns. Even though our defense was playing decently, with Koi Perich nearly winning NFC defensive rookie of the year with 75 tackles and two picks, and Donovan Ezeiruaku getting 9 sacks, the team felt better than the sum of its parts.
In the offseason, I focused on rounding out the roster and creating some more depth in different spots, this seemed like it would be the offseason where we push the team back into the playoffs and set up the team for future success (which is my goal for this article), I knew if we could add just a few more pieces, and get two double digit wins, I could claim victory and hold my head up high knowing I reconstructed a winning in just four years.
To do this, all I had to do was keep adding pieces, which is exactly what I did. I signed Cooper DeJean to the secondary and Chop Robinson off the edge to make our defense more electric. I also added some reviving depth with the addition of tight end Jared Wiley.
With our record, we earned the 12th pick in the draft, but we also got lucky and got the second pick from the Panthers, which we got in the Ceedee Lamb trade. We ended up with a few impact players on defense and some depth pieces on defense.
Full 2028 Draft
2: CB Devin Sanchez
12: SAM J.J. Morton
44: WR Quentin Gibson
76: DT James Rivera
108: TE Denzel Alexander
152: RB Erik Tillman
204: WR Juan Guerrero
236: EDGE Skylar Berger
2029 Depth Chart
| QB | Arch Manning | Joe Milton III | Quintin Valentine | |
| RB | Jaydon Blue | Jeremiyah Love | Marshawn Lloyd | Phil Mafah |
| WR-X | Jeremiah Smith | Jalen Tolbert | Juan Guerrero | |
| WR-Y | Jordyn Tyson | Quentin Gibson | Eric Rivers | |
| TE | Jake Ferguson | Max Klare | Jared Wiley | Denzel Alexander |
| LT | Tyler Guyton | Ajani Cornelius | ||
| LG | Tyler Smith | Elijah Thomas | ||
| C | Ben Moore | |||
| RG | Tyler Booker | Jayvon Brinkley | ||
| RT | Brian O’Neill | Ray Colangelo | ||
| LEDGE | Chop Robinson | Donovan Ezeiruaku | D.J. Gordon | |
| REDGE | T.J. Parker | B.J. Ojulari | Skylar Berger | |
| DT | Osa Odighizuwa | Dominick McKinley | Jay Toia | James Rivera |
| SAM | Marist Liufau | Sammy Brown | ||
| MIKE | Dorian Williams | Jack Stockton | Shemar James | |
| WILL | DeMarvion Overshown | J.J. Morton | Sam Gardner | |
| CB | Cooper DeJean | Shavon Revel Jr. | Devin Sanchez | J.C. Ball |
| FS | Koi Perich | Bryan Cook | Caelen Carson | |
| SS | Kamari Ramsey | Xavier Filsaime | ||
| K | Manny Estrada | |||
| P | Dom Williamson | |||
| LS | Trent Sieg |
Year Four Of The Tank
Our team jumped up in talent in a major way. We went from not having a single 90+ overall player to having five of them (Manning, J. Smith, T. Smith, Parker, and DeJean), and our record reflected that; sitting at 11-6, we made the playoffs as a Wildcard team behind the Eagles by one game in the division. Our passing attack was dominant. Arch Manning finished third in the league in passing yards with 4,206 and eighth in the league in TDs with 31. He ended with a 93 overall, the best on the team. All three of our receivers (Smith, Tyson, and Tolbert) ended the season with over 950 yards receiving. Unfortunately for the Cowboys, they were beaten by the Lions in the Wildcard round, but are in such a good position moving forward that I’m willing to call that a win and end the article there, knowing that a Super Bowl victory is inevitable at this point… so long as we are able to re-sign Arch Manning!
