FRISCO, Texas – Wednesday at 3:00 P.M. central time marked the beginning of the 2025 NFL league year, which is also the start of the league's official free agency. That opens the door for players to put pen to paper with other teams, and the Cowboys were busy doing just that.
They were also busy in the trade market, acquiring two former first round picks on the defensive side of the ball to help fill some voids on the roster.
Let's dive into Dallas' activity from the first day of full-fledged free agency full of movement for the defense:
Linebacker is a position that the Cowboys were likely to look at through the draft and/or free agency, and the Cowboys addressed it on Wednesday by trading for Titans linebacker Kenneth Murray.
Murray, a first-round pick by the Los Angeles Chargers in the 2020 NFL draft out of Oklahoma, spent the first four seasons of his career with the Chargers before signing a two-year deal with Tennessee ahead of the 2024 season.
In his lone season with the Titans, Murray led the team in tackles with 95 and notched a career high 3.5 sacks in 14 starts. In Dallas, he'll give Matt Eberflus and company an experienced player in the middle of the defense who has a knack for bringing players to the ground.
The Cowboys said goodbye to one of their top players over the last decade when DeMarcus Lawrence agreed to a deal with the Seattle Seahawks.
Lawrence and Zack Martin were the longest-tenured Cowboys players, both arriving in 2014. And in the last week, both are now moving on.
A four-time Pro Bowler, Martin will reunite with Seahawks defensive coordinator Aden Durde, who was the Dallas D-line coach before leaving for Seattle last year.
The Cowboys have agreed to terms on their first trade of the 2025 offseason, sending a 2025 fifth-round pick (170th overall) and a 2026 seventh-round pick for to the Buffalo Bills for cornerback Kaiir Elam and a 2025 sixth-round pick.
Elam, 24, has spent the past three seasons in Buffalo and started 12 games for the Bills.
In 2024, Elam played in 13 games and started in four, tallying 26 total tackles, two tackles for loss, and two pass deflections.
The Cowboys are continuing to add to the defensive side of the ball in free agency, as the team agreed to terms on a one-year deal with former Bears linebacker Jack Sanborn on Wednesday.
Sanborn, 24, has spent all three of his NFL seasons in Chicago after going undrafted out of Wisconsin in 2022.
Sanborn was used in a rotational role for most of the 2024 season, starting in three games but playing in all 17 for Chicago. He tallied 35 tackles, two tackles for loss and one and a half sacks in that time span.
Another domino has fallen in Dallas Cowboys' free agency, and immediately after the team waved goodbye to legendary defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence, who will reunite with Aden Durde as a part of the Seattle Seahawks. They'll do the same for running back Rico Dowdle, will join the Carolina Panthers — the team announced — heading home to his familiar stomping grounds.
The native of Asheville, NC and former standout running back at South Carolina is reportedly a one-year deal worth a maximum of $6 million, with $3 million in promised salary, per NFL Network.
From undrafted talent in 2020 to becoming the Cowboys' first-ever undrafted player to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season, achieving the feat in 2024, Dowdle entered free agency for the first time as an unrestricted free agent, and after years of having played understudy to others such as Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard.
