Report: Bengals planned to draft reach DT, Lawrence trade hurt Cowboys

Sitting at slot No. 12 in a weak draft is anxiety inducing. The Dallas Cowboys have the ammunition to move up in Thursday's first round of the 2026 NFL Draft, holding two picks in the Top 20. The Cowboys have a myriad of needs, though, and no second-round pick, so moving up isn't necessarily ideal.

But this draft is short on top-end talent. So when the rival New York Giants, who already own the No. 5 selection, traded Pro Bowl DT Dexter Lawrence to the Cincinnati Bengals for pick No. 12, it caused a stir around the league, including in Dallas. Many thoughts were spent trying to dissect whether it was a negative, a positive, or a net neutral move to the Cowboys' chances of landing their guy. No one knew for sure, until now.

On Thursday's episode of Trust the Tape, plugged in former scout Bryan Broaddus shared with host Jeff Cavanaugh that he had intel. The Bengals planned to draft Clemson DT Peter Woods with the No. 10 overall pick.

Here's intel for you. They were going to reach on Peter Woods. They were gonna take Peter Woods at 10...

The video is queued up at the spot below.

Most people thought the Bengals overpaid for Lawrence, giving up the No. 10 pick for a star DT. Comparing the Bengals-Giants trade to the Cowboys-Jets swap for Quinnen Williams, the pick value of the Williams return was 880 points. The No. 10 pick is worth 1300 points.

But if they had identified a clear need at DT and were hellbent on drafting Woods? It absolutely makes sense for them to spend those points on Lawrence instead.