PUEBLO, Colo. – If there’s one PBR Team Series squad to watch in the coming weeks and months, it may very well be the Carolina Cowboys.

After a blockbuster trade sent Mason Taylor and Ednelio Almeida to the Nashville Stampede, the Cowboys are sitting pretty with not one but two picks in the first round of the 2023 PBR Team Series Draft on May 17 in Fort Worth, Texas.

Those picks? No. 5 and No. 1.

“There’s some really exciting talents coming into the draft,” General Manager Austin Dillon said on PBR Now. “We’ve heard about a couple of the PRCA guys coming over, and there’s a lot of Brazilian talent out there. So we’re excited to see where it ends up. We’ve had a couple combines, and some of those guys look great as well. So we haven’t made up our mind yet, but we’re getting close.”

The Cowboys are becoming somewhat known for making splashy trades. They were part of the first trade in PBR Team Series history during the inaugural draft in 2022, trading top picks Cody Jesus and Joao Ricardo Vieira to the Texas Rattlers for Taylor and newly minted World Champion Daylon Swearingen.

“It’s really just trying to build the best team we can possibly build,” Dillon said. “(Head coach) Jerome (Davis) comes to me, and he goes, ‘Man, I’d really like to get that No. 1 pick,’ or, ‘I’d really like to get Daylon,’ so I try to do whatever we can do to make it happen. Last year, we were fortunate to be able to get Daylon Swearingen, last year’s World Champion, and Daylon’s such a great part of this team.”

Swearingen was indeed an integral part of the Cowboys’ inaugural campaign, going 18-for-31 (58%) for Carolina. However, a groin injury early in 2023 derailed his world title defense, and he’ll miss the 2023 PBR World Finals on May 12-21 in Fort Worth.

“I met with Dr. Tandy Freeman (a few weeks ago), and he told me to wait a couple more weeks to ensure that nothing’s going to re-tear or anything like that, so that’s kind of what I’m doing,” Swearingen said. “The goal is to be back for Teams. Get on some practice bulls in these next couple weeks and go from there.”

The Cowboys have also been scouting at the three PBR Team Series combines held this spring. The first, in fact, was held at Davis’s ranch in Archdale, North Carolina.

“There’s a lot of good kids out there, a lot of new, young kids coming in that’s 18 this year that we’ve been looking at,” Davis said. “A lot of older guys there that we’ve kind of got our eyes on. So the combine’s a good thing. We’ve got a lot of guys on that list we’re looking at. When we look at our board and who we’re looking at to pick, there’s a lot of good guys in there, and I think that’s how we stay so excited about what’s going on.”

But this offseason has been a big one for the Cowboys in multiple ways, as they recently moved their home base to Greensboro and the Greensboro Coliseum. Dillon and the rest of team leadership are excited about the prospect of settling down in a great bull-riding town.

“Greensboro has been a great place for the PBR, looking back in time,” Dillon said. “Jerome talked to me about how great the crowd was in Greensboro. It’s just right down the road from me, so I’m excited about the move. And the mayor of Greensboro came out to Jerome’s, and we gave her a bull, the Mayor of Greensbull. So we have a bull for the mayor of Greensboro, and she’ll be out at the events. They’ve been so great to work with, and we’re just excited to be bringing the Carolina Cowboys and our home event to Greensboro, North Carolina.”

That first home event in Greensboro will be PBR Cowboy Days on Sept. 22-24 – tickets are on sale now.

But before the Cowboys get too ahead of themselves, they still have the rest of the offseason to prepare their team for the season ahead. While action begins at Cheyenne Frontier Days on July 24-25, the work starts well before that.

“We’re going to have all the guys come out again there at the house,” Davis said. “Last year, we had the SEALs come out and help us, and we had a really good combine last year of our own, and I think it paid dividends at the end of the year. When we rolled into that first event in Cheyenne, we were pumped up, guys were pumped, and it rolled through the season that way.”

Davis, however, doesn’t need Navy SEALs to pump him up. The PBR Ring of Honor member and his wife, Tiffany, are raring to go for season two.

“We’re pumped up, and we’re excited about the draft pics we’ve got coming up,” Davis said. “We’re excited about the guys. We’ve still got our team. I feel like we’re in a good position right now, and I’m excited going into a new year. Every time I get on the phone with Austin, I just tell him how pumped up I am about it because it’s really exciting to be a part of what we’ve got going on right now.”

Photo courtesy of Josh Homer/Bull Stock Media