There is bad, worse, and then there is this... Jermod McCoy was hoping to hear his name called on the first day of the 2026 NFL Draft on Thursday night from Pittsburgh. While an ACL tear sidelined him last season at Tennessee, it seemed as though he would be good to go come draft time. Unfortunately, new medical concerns have emerged that might unfortunately cost him his career.
Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports relayed the bleak and brutal nature of what McCoy is dealing with.
"As I started to talk to teams about exactly what the problem was here and this news that has come out, it is not the ACL tear issue. That's fine. But he has a bone plug, which is basically a piece of bone and cartilage that was used to repair a degenerative cartilage issue in that same knee. Now there is a thought process amongst doctors that this is now gonna have to be replaced again. Maybe not immediately, but at some point in the future."
This is where it went from bad, to worse, to downright ugly when it came to Robinon's great reporting.
"I had one team tell me that if there is a severe slip, it's because there are some that are taking the position that if this next surgery, which would likely knock him out for the entirety of a year. If this next surgery is not successful, it will effectively end his career. Because what you are doing to fix it is you're taking a piece of bone and cartilage from somewhere else in that knee that is not necessarily load-bearing, and you're transporting it to try and fix the defects. So you can't keep doing this over and over again."
The fact this existing bone plug will need to be replaced has most teams not interested in McCoy.
Understanding Jermod McCoy’s slide into the third day of the draft… pic.twitter.com/8zgQPb0Jm9
— Charles Robinson (@CharlesRobinson) April 25, 2026
That being said, there is one team who could conceivably stop McCoy's draft fall during day three...
Jermod McCoy better hope for this team to stop his wild NFL Draft fall
Robinson followed up his initial intel by saying the Dallas Cowboys might be the team to watch here.
"One other piece of information. The interesting thing here too is kind of the foremost surgeon now who deals with these bone plugs, it's Dan Cooper, who's the Cowboys team doctor. So somehow if you see the Cowboys end up being the team that does the dice rolling on it, it's because they have the foremost expert on their staff."
With Dan Cooper on the Cowboys' medical staff, they could make him a fourth-round pick this spring. Dallas has four picks entering the third and final day of the 2026 NFL Draft: Picks No. 112, No. 114, and No. 137 in the fourth round, as well as No. 218 in the seventh round. So far, they have drafted only defensive players in safety Caleb Downs, and edge players Malachi Lawrence and Jaishawn Barham.
So what does this all mean for McCoy? The new medical information on the stability of the existing bone plug has most teams spooked. If any team is going to take a flier on him, it might be Dallas, strictly because Cooper has the medical wherewithal to handle such a complicated and unique surgery. Yes, the talent is most certainly there for McCoy, but he will miss time on any four-year deal.
Ultimately, Dallas really does feel like the team who will make it happen for McCoy. The Cowboys love themselves some stars. They have loaded up on defense in this draft. Dallas has a knack for drafting well. Because the Cowboys have so many bites at the apple in the fourth round, one should expect them to possibly be in the driver's seat to take him day three. If he makes it to round five, who knows?
Right now, any player who has a degenerative knee issue is not going to have a long playing career.
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