The Cowboys are currently tied for the most projected compensatory picks in 2025.

The Dallas Cowboys have a plan. Whether or not anyone agrees with that plan will not change what the club does, and it seems apparent that the Cowboys are at least putting all of their eggs in the basket of 2025.

To be clear, this is not about Dallas tanking the upcoming season, but with regards to draft capital that they want to accrue. We know the Cowboys were notoriously unwilling to participate in free agency over the past few months even while losing players that have been important to the team over the last handful of seasons.

Connecting dots, this sets the Cowboys up well to receive compensatory picks in 2025. We noted following the NFL draft that Dallas did not trade much future capital in anticipation of receiving comp picks the way that we thought they would, but that does not change the projections themselves.

The Cowboys are tied for the most projected compensatory picks next year

It does not take much to figure out that Dallas is indeed projected to receive its fair share of compensatory picks next season, but with the dust all the way settled from the draft those kinds of things are starting to become clearer.

Recently NFL.com took a look at comp pick projections and have the Cowboys on track to receive four. That is tied for the most in the league with the Baltimore Ravens.

Dallas Cowboys

Projected compensatory picks: Three in Round 5; one in Round 6.

Key free-agent losses: Dorance Armstrong (Commanders), Tyler Biadasz (Commanders), Tony Pollard (Titans), Tyron Smith (Jets), Dante Fowler Jr. (Commanders).

Key free-agent additions: None.

Shout-out to the Cowboys, who have leaned heavily into the compensatory-picks game. Dating back to 2021, the Cowboys have added a minimum of two compensatory picks per year, and that trend will extend in 2025, with Dallas almost guaranteed to hit the limit of four additional picks after losing five qualifying players and (notoriously) signing none this offseason.

There is a limit of four picks and the Cowboys are projected to receive three in the fifth round and one in the sixth (Baltimore is projected to receive one each in rounds four and five and two in round six).

But this is part of the annual game that Dallas has become known for playing which is evidenced by when they chose to sign their latest free agents. The Cowboys brought back both Ezekiel Elliott and Damien Wilson recently and that they did so on the proper side of the deadline following the draft, neither signing will impact the compensatory formula in a negative way.

The Cowboys did trade away their 2025 seventh-rounder when they moved down with the Detroit Lions in the first round before they selected Tyler Guyton. As things stand right now this is the draft capital they would be looking at:

2025 Dallas Cowboys Projected Draft Capital

• 1st Round Pick (original)
• 2nd Round Pick (original)
• 3rd Round Pick (original)
• 4th Round Pick (original)
• 5th Round Pick (original)
• 5th Round Pick (compensatory)
• 5th Round Pick (compensatory)
• 5th Round Pick (compensatory)
• 6th Round Pick (original)
• 6th Round Pick (compensatory)

That is 10 total picks for the Cowboys at the moment which is definitely enough to play around with. Obviously the team could still move some picks around and pick up or lose some along the way.