Cowboys 2026 free agent profile: WR Jalen Tolbert

The Dallas Cowboys have 22 players (UFA/RFA) who will officially hit the open market in a little over a month. Today, we continue our series examining each of the Cowboys’ impending free agents, reviewing their 2025 campaign and predicting what will be next for each player.

We continue our free agent profile series by taking a look at our second offensive player, wide receiver Jalen Tolbert.

2025 Regular Season Stats: 13G, 18 Receptions, 203 Receiving Yards, 1 TD, 44.1% Receiving Success Rate, 12 First Downs receiving, 52.9% Catch %, 15.6 Receiving Y/G

Year Review: 2025 seemed like a make-or-break year for wide receiver Jalen Tolbert. After a slow start to his Cowboys career, the 2022 third-round pick saw himself leap forward during his third season in the league. 2024 was a productive season for the young wideout, and he started to reach new heights during the most productive season of his NFL career.

In that 2024 campaign, Tolbert saw an increase in opportunities and took advantage, recording career-highs in receptions (49), receiving yards (610), and touchdowns (7). While he wasn’t a number one or two receiver by any means, he showed an ability to hold a role in a productive offense and figured to play some significant offensive snaps for the Cowboys in 2025.

Even after the Cowboys acquired George Pickens, many believed Tolbert would cement himself as Dallas’ third wideout, hoping to build upon his career year. Unfortunately for both Tolbert and the Cowboys, the exact opposite happened.

2025 turned out to be a disaster year for the 26-year-old receiver. After starting off the season on a fairly high note, recording 10 receptions for 101 yards in Dallas’ first four games, Tolbert went MIA the rest of the year. Throughout the rest of the regular season, Tolbert recorded just eight catches for 102 yards and one touchdown.

Things got so bad that Tolbert ended up being inactive in four of Dallas’ final six regular-season games, as Ryan Flournoy, KaVontae Turpin, and even Jonathan Mingo leapfrogged him on the depth chart. Any positive development Tolbert showed during his solid 2024 campaign went out the door, and by season’s end, the former third-round pick was an afterthought in Dallas’ offense. 

Jalen Tolbert picked a bad time to have arguably the most disappointing season of his NFL career, as the wideout will hit the open market with a very unclear long-term future.

Free Agency Outlook: After such a poor showing last season, it’s hard to predict how teams will value Tolbert on the open market. While there is no denying his Cowboys career was extremely disappointing, he is still only 26 years old, and a team may think they can unlock some of that potential Dallas saw in him when they drafted the wideout back in 2022. 

Teams can always use extra bodies at wide receiver, especially during training camp, so someone will give Tolbert a guaranteed deal, almost certainly for one year. Last offseason, wide receivers Elijah Moore, Tim Patrick, Tylan Wallace, and Robert Woods all signed one-year contracts worth anywhere from $2M-$2.5M. Tolbert’s next contract will likely fall somewhere in this range.

Rebuilding teams with weak receiving corps like the New York Jets or Las Vegas Raiders could be a potential landing spot for Tolbert as he looks to rebuild his value.

Cowboys Verdict: Out of Dallas’ 22 impending free agents, the decision to part ways with Tolbert is one of the easiest ones out of the entire group. The wideout never turned out to be the player they believed he was capable of becoming when they drafted him, and the selection was one of their biggest swings and misses in the last five years. 

There were times during his four seasons in Dallas that Tolbert showed potential, but he was unable to consistently put it together for an extended period of time. 

Prediction: Jalen Tolbert signs a one-year, $2M deal with the Las Vegas Raiders.