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'd begin the month of April with yet another trade, this time sending a 2025 fifth-round pick (171st-overall, a compensatory pick) to the New England Patriots in exchange for quarterback Joe Milton and a 2025 seventh-round pick (217th-overall), a move that creates competition with Will Grier for the right to back up All-Pro quarterback Dak Prescott.
They had no have no shortage of artillery to use in such trades, 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, again, and only days away from the 2025 NFL Draft.
All told, this is what the team's draft order currently looks like:
- Round 1: 12th overall
- Round 2: 44th overall
- Round 3: 76th overall
- Round 5: 149th overall
- Round 5: 174th overall (compensatory)
- Round 6: 204th overall (acquired from Bills in Elam trade)
- Round 6: 211th overall (compensatory)
- Round 7: 217th overall (acquired from Patriots in Milton trade)
- 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 two fifth-round picks and three 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 two 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.
