March 9, 2026Updated March 10, 2026, 12:48 a.m. CT
The Dallas Cowboys are in the middle of trying to secure as much talent as possible, but for the right price, as they head into the new league year. While free agency targets are flying off the board, and Dallas for once didn’t wait until late in the week to make a move, there’s other business at hand.
The NFL announced the slate of 2026 compensatory picks on Monday, and Dallas is going to get two fifth-round picks for players who left the team in 2025 free agency. The Cowboys have almost always been thought of as getting two picks, but recent calculations seemed to indicate they could be only getting one fifth and one sixth. The difference is about 40 prospects off the board.
The Cowboys will have the No. 177 and No. 180 selections in addition to the picks they have by virtue of their 7-9-1 record in 2025. The first pick is almost certainly for losing DE Demarcus Lawrence to the now-world champion Seattkle Seahawks. The other pick is up for a small amount of debate.
Depending on how the NFL calculated playing time and contract rank, the second comp pick could have been for RB Rico Dowdle, who went to the Carolina Panthers, WR Brandin Cooks with the Bills, or cornerback Jourdan Lewis with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Cowboys Current 2026 Draft Picks1.12 – Cowboys’ own pick1.20 – Cowboys pick from Parsons’ trade from Green Bay4.112 – Cowboys’ own pick5.152 – Cowboys’ own pick5.177 – Comp pick for Demarcus Lawrence (SEA)5.180 – Comp pick for either Dowdle, Lewis or Cooks7.225 – Cowboys’ pick from Kansas City Chiefs (Peyton Hendershot)Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.
The Cowboys do not have their second-round pick due to trading for the Jets’ Quinnen Williams. Their third-round pick went to the Steelers for WR George Pickens. Their sixth-round pick went to the Giants in the Jordan Phillips trade of 2024.
Their 2026 seventh-round pick the Cowboys received back from New York in the Phillips trade was sent to the Cincinnati Bengals for LB Logan Wilson last year. The Cowboys’ own 2021 seventh-round pick went to the Buffalo Bills for Kaiir Elam in a trade last spring.
The NFL Draft kicks off on Thursday, April 23, 2026 at 7:00 p.m. Central.
Comp Pick Formula Rules
Here are the rules that govern compensatory selections:
There are only 32 compensatory picks available to be spread out amongst the 32 franchises, but they are not distributed equally. Also, no team can receive more than four compensatory picks in any one draft.The picks are distributed across the third through seventh rounds, at the conclusion of the standard 32 picks of each round. Picks are not evenly distributed throughout these rounds, but rather done by a sliding cutoff scale.For each player a team signs, it cancels out a player that team lost. These are canceled out based on the value of the contracts. If a team loses a player valued as a third-round pick, and a player valued as a fifth round pick, but sign a player who’s valued as a third… then the team gets the fifth-round pick compensation. The third-round picks cancel out. However, if they sign a player who’s valued as a fourth, then he would cancel out the lower player, and said team would get compensated with the third-round pick.On top of salary concerns, not every free agent signed or lost qualifies for compensatory consideration. There are ways to sign players that won’t add to the “players signed” ledger. Players who are cut from other teams, players who were RFAs or ERFAs who weren’t tendered, players signed after “May 12th” (specific date will vary year-to-year).The primary determining factor of which round a team is compensated with for a lost player is the Adjusted Average Annual Value of that player’s deal with his new team, compared to the rest of the league. There are levels associated with each round of compensation and teams are slotted in order within those rounds based on the rankings. Playing time and postseason awards are factored in at a much lesser weight. See Over The Cap’s active tracker of where values of each new contract slot.The player must stay with his new team through Week 10 of the next season to qualify.Occasionally, teams will be awarded “net value” comp picks, which is where the volume of QFA lost and signed evens out, but the difference in quality of players is so severe the team still earns an extra selection.