The Dallas Cowboys may get a draft pick that no one had even considered before
It turns out the Dallas Cowboys may have a better draft pick situation than we originally thought.
It may be time to make a big adjustment to our expectations of the Dallas Cowboys’ 2026 NFL Draft for quite a big reason: They may be set to hold a draft pick we hadn’t considered before.
That’s because according to a salary cap expert from Over the Cap, this year’s compensatory picks will look different than expected. Let’s break it down.
Cowboys may have a draft pick we hadn’t considered
According to Over the Cap’s compensatory pick expert Nick Korte, “the leaguewide number considered for the 2026 compensatory picks might be a bit higher than I projected.”
In other words, Korte is saying the overall contract market was stronger than expected. And since the NFL’s compensatory picks formula is essentially a percentile ranking, that means the Cowboys’ expected compensatory picks are likely to change.
All offseason, Dallas has been projected to land one compensatory pick in the fifth round, and another for the sixth. Over The Cap, Spotrac, Tankathon, and other significant outlets showed such projections. But that could change ahead of the draft.
According to Korte’s adjusted projections, the Cowboys will wind up landing two fifth-round comp picks.
The change would obviously be very significant. Though it would remain a late-round pick, we’re talking about a difference of a full round.
How do comp picks work?
Simply put, comp picks are the NFL’s way to compensate a team’s losses in free agency. Specifically, they help compensate when a team loses more, or better, free agents than it signs. For this, there’s a formula that ranks “Compensatory Free Agents” and their contracts using many factors such as average per year value.
Each player receives a numerical value based on those factors, and is ranked through it. From there, they’re assigned draft pick rounds by percentile.
Using the Cowboys as an example, losing DeMarcus Lawrence and Jourdan Lewis is set to grant them two comp picks.
Lewis was the one projected to yield a sixth-round pick, but he’s now projected to yield a fifth-rounder instead. Below is a full breakdown of the Cowboys’ signed and lost Compensatory Free Agents via Over the Cap.
While this update isn’t going to change the direction of the 2026 Cowboys, it’s always positive to see a team’s draft picks change in a positive way.
The NFL will officially announce comp picks before the start of free agency.
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