FRISCO, Texas — Already far busier than they were this time last year, the Dallas Cowboys opened up 2025 free agency with a slew of moves that weren't only relegated to signings and re-signings, though there have been several of each of those as well, but they also decided to pull the trigger on trades at the start of the new NFL league year.
Hoping to resolve depth issues at both cornerback and linebacker, the Cowboys acquired Kaiir Elam and Kenneth Murray to try and resolve those needs, respectively, using some of their draft pick firepower to get the deals done.
They have no shortage of artillery there, thanks to the NFL awarding them a total of four compensatory picks and, as speculated in the latest edition of the “Science Lab” series, they used the picks to impact free agency.
The Cowboys included one of the comp picks in a trade on Wednesday.
With that, and given a couple of late-round swaps as well, this is what their draft order currently looks like going into this year's draft:
- Round 1: 12th overall
- Round 2: 44th overall
- Round 3: 76th overall
- Round 5: 149th overall
- Round 5: 171st overall (compensatory)
- Round 5: 174th overall (compensatory)
- Round 6: 204th overall (acquired from Bills in Elam trade)
- Round 6: 211th overall (compensatory)
- Round 7: 239th overall (acquired from Titans in Murray trade)
- Round 7: 247th overall
The trade for Elam involved sending the 170th-overall (fifth round) pick to the Buffalo Bills in exchange for Elam and the 204th-overall (sixth round) in this year's draft, and the 188th-overall (sixth round) pick to the Tennessee Titans to land Murray, as well as a seventh-round pick in 2026 that is to-be-determined — receiving the 239th-overall (seventh round) pick from the Titans for 2025.
Simply put, the Cowboys went from having four separate fifth-round picks in 2025 and one seventh-round pick to three fifth-round picks and two seventh-rounders, also moving down a total of 16 spots in the sixth round but did not sacrifice the ability to select twice in that round.
Their remaining three compensatory picks also remain as ammunition to package in deals to come or to simply stack rookie talent in late April.
Time will tell, and soon, which of those two paths they decide to take.
