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Since the end of last season we’ve speculated without pause on the new talent the Cowboys will acquire this year, first via free agency in March, and then via the draft in April. And while it’s great fun to contemplate who all those shiny new toys might be, it’s easy to lose sight of another great source of talent for the Cowboys in 2026: the young guys already on the team.
It is a widely held belief that NFL players take a quantum leap in performance from their rookie season to their second season. After all, by the time the 2026 season starts, they’ll have been through their first full NFL season, they’ll have been through an NFL-level offseason strength & conditioning program, they’re hopefully much more familiar with the playbook (at least on offense), and they’ll have had ample time to improve their technique.
This is especially true for later-round draft picks or UDFAs who face a steep learning curve in the NFL and often don’t see that leap in performance until their second year in the NFL or even later.
- 2019 sixth-round pick Donovan Wilson played just 18 defensive snaps in his rookie season before emerging as a starter at safety in his second NFL season and has since started 75 of a possible 102 games, including 62 of 68 over the last four years.
- Similarly, Dalton Schultz (fourth round, 2018) played sparingly in his first two NFL seasons with just 13 receptions over two years, but emerged as a starter in his third season with the Cowboys, tagged on two more starter seasons on top of that and then left for Houston.
- Tyler Biadasz (fourth round, 2020) started four games in his rookie season, went on to start in 49 of 51 possible games for Dallas and 31 of 34 for Washington after that.
- 2023 UDFA Hunter Luepke played just 153 offensive snaps in his rookie season but translated that into a two-year, $7.5 million contract extension last year.
- And before Luepke, 2022 UDFA Marquese Bell signed 3-year, $9 million contract extension before the 2025 season after playing just 22 defensive snaps in his rookie season.
Today, we’re going to ask you to nominate your Breakout Player for 2026. But before you start rattling off the names of recent first- or second-round picks, the players you select have to fit a very specific profile.
The now defunct Football Outsiders used to release a list of Top 25 Prospects annually in which they nominated the 25 players they thought most likely to have a breakout year. To qualify as a Breakout Player, the following criteria had to be met:
- Drafted in the third round or later, or signed as a college free agent
- On the roster in 2025
- Entered the NFL between 2023 and 2025
- Fewer than 500 career offensive or defensive snaps
- Age 26 or younger in 2026.
To spare you the guesswork of which players do or don’t match the criteria above, here’s a list of all players that qualify as a Breakout Player candidate by this admittedly limiting definition.
body .sbnu-legacy-content-table td, body .sbnu-legacy-content-table th, body .sbnu-legacy-content-table { border: 1px solid #000 !important; border-collapse: collapse !important; }| Name | Age | Position | NFL Years | Games | Games Started | Off/Def Snaps | Drafted (tm/rnd/yr) |
| NFL Starting Experience | |||||||
| Caelen Carson | 23 | CB | 2 | 14 | 8 | 463 | Cowboys / 5th / 2024 |
| Shavon Revel | 24 | CB | 1 | 7 | 5 | 334 | Cowboys / 3rd / 2025 |
| Nathan Thomas | 24 | T | 2 | 17 | 4 | 341 | Cowboys / 7th / 2024 |
| Trikweze Bridges | 25 | CB | 1 | 16 | 2 | 248 | Chargers / 7th / 2025 |
| Alijah Clark | 22 | S | 1 | 11 | 1 | 40 | UDFA / 2025 |
| Jalen Moreno-Cropper | 24 | WR | 3 | 32 | 4 | 20 | UDFA / 2023 |
| NFL Game Experience | |||||||
| Joe Milton | 25 | QB | 2 | 5 | 0 | 112 | Patriots / 6th / 2024 |
| Isaiah Land (Futures) | 25 | LB | 3 | 18 | 0 | 112 | UDFA / 2023 |
| Jay Toia | 22 | DT | 1 | 5 | 0 | 90 | Cowboys / 7th / 2025 |
| Jaydon Blue | 21 | RB | 1 | 5 | 0 | 78 | Cowboys / 5th / 2025 |
| Israel Abanikanda (Futures) | 23 | RB | 3 | 6 | 0 | 77 | Jets / 5th / 2023 |
| Trevor Keegan | 25 | G | 2 | 3 | 0 | 41 | Eagles / 5th / 2024 |
| Princeton Fant | 26 | TE | 3 | 11 | 0 | 14 | UDFA / 2023 |
| Phil Mafah | 23 | RB | 1 | 1 | 0 | 10 | Cowboys / 7th / 2025 |
| Zion Childress (Futures) | 23 | CB | 1 | 3 | 0 | 5 | UDFA / 2025 |
| Julius Wood (Futures) | 24 | S | 2 | 9 | 0 | 5 | UDFA / 2024 |
| No NFL Experience | |||||||
| Justin Barron | 24 | LB | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | UDFA / 2025 |
| Ajani Cornelius | 23 | OT | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Cowboys / 6th / 2025 |
| Traeshon Holden (Futures) | 24 | WR | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | UDFA / 2025 |
| Marcellus Johnson (Futures) | 25 | OT | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | UDFA / 2025 |
I’ve got to be diplomatic in how I phrase this – all these players have mothers who care for them deeply – but this is not a particularly awe-inspiring list. And frankly, most players listed here will struggle to make the 53-man roster this year, never mind warrant consideration as breakout players. Nevertheless, here are players that may have the best chance of seeing considerable playing time in 2026:
Shavon Revel is probably the most obvious name on the list. He played poorly in 2025 coming off an ACL, but was considered a potential first-round pick before the injury. Improved health and the change in defensive coaching staff and scheme should help him.
Caelen Carson is also an obvious choice, though he’ll likely compete in a crowded CB room. The Cowboys will likely bring in a free agent corner or two and will also likely invest in a corner in the first round of the draft. Carson didn’t have a great season last year, but PFF did grade him as the second-best corner (54.8 grade) on the team behind DaRon Bland (65.2). Faint praise, but still …
Alijah Clark was my pet cat among the UDFA signings last year, and I’ve got to keep the faith here. The Cowboys liked him so much they gave him a contract with $234,000 guaranteed, which is what a player would make on the 2025 practice squad for the entire season. Clark played just 40 snaps on defense, but his way onto the roster will be via special teams, where he played 174 snaps last year.
Traeshon Holden (via BTB’s Jess Haynie):
One of the darlings of the 2025 preseason, the undrafted WR out of Oregon caused a panic when he didn’t make it through final cuts. But despite everyone’s fears, Holden made it onto the practice squad and remained unpoached through the season. If the Cowboys do move on from guys like Mingo and Jalen Tolbert, Holden has a great chance to claim a spot near the bottom of the depth chart.
Over to you: From the list above, who would you pick as your 2026 Breakout Player for the Dallas Cowboys?