FRISCO, Texas — The NFL officially announced the 32 compensatory draft selections for the 2024 NFL Draft in Detroit, and the Cowboys have been awarded two picks for free agents that departed last season. The two picks are in the fifth round (Pick 39, No. 173 overall) and the sixth round (Pick 41, No. 216 overall).
The fifth-round pick was awarded for the departure of Connor McGovern and the sixth-round pick was awarded for the departure of Dalton Schultz. The Cowboys barely missed out on being awarded a seventh-round pick for the departure of Noah Brown, but his categorization under compensatory pick rules fell just outside of the top 32 in the league.
The Cowboys will now head into the latter half of the draft cycle officially holding seven picks in April's draft. They retain their original first-round (No. 24), second-round (No. 56), third-round (No. 87) and seventh-round (No. 244) picks as well as a seventh-round pick that was acquired in the trade for Johnathan Hankins (No. 233) and the two compensatory selections (No. 173 and No. 216).
They will be without their original fourth-round pick (traded away for Trey Lance), fifth-round pick (traded away for Stephon Gilmore) and sixth-round pick (traded away for Brandin Cooks).
Heading into free agency, needs for the offseason are present at the offensive tackle, running back, linebacker, defensive tackle and cornerback positions among others. With limited cap space available and 16 impending free agents, the Cowboys will expect to have a large handful of compensatory selections in 2025 if the majority of the expired contracts find different homes this offseason.
The Cowboys have historically had success with compensatory selections, with Larry Allen becoming the first former comp pick to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame and others such as Dak Prescott, DaRon Bland and Dalton Schultz making big impacts in recent years.
