Enter Christian Parker, an exciting young rising star who will transform Dallas to a base 3-4 defense. Along with the Jones family vowing to spend money in this year’s free agency, fans are cautiously optimistic this will be a much more exciting spring than any over the last decade.<\/p>\n
Here, we’ll keep track of every coming and going, every rumor of potential interest that may or may not work out, and the contract details associated with each transaction. And as always, we’ll continuously update the comp pick ledger; which, if Dallas does spend heavy, will likely end up with no comp picks for the first time in forever.<\/p>\n
![\"2027](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/89054326007-screenshot-20260308-at-125626-pm.png\")
A collection of things that either involve current, former Cowboys or targets that would make sense for the team.<\/p>\n
Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a> Cowboys 2026 Signings and DeparturesWR George Pickens placed on $27.3 million non-exclusive franchise tagK Brandon Aubrey (RFA) placed on $5.76 million second-round tenderOG TJ Bass (RFA) placed on $5.76 million second-round tenderCB Josh Butler (ERFA) signed on $1.07 million tenderCB Reddy Steward (ERFA) signed on $1 million tender Remaining Cowboys Free AgentsDE Jadeveon ClowneyWR Jalen TolbertLB Kenneth MurraySafety Donovan WilsonDE Sam WilliamsDE Dante FowlerLB Logan WilsonEdge Payton TurnerDT Perrion WInfreyOL Robert JonesOL Hakeem AdenijiOL Brock HoffmanRB Miles SandersLB Jack SanbornST CJ GoodwinSafety Juanyeh ThomasCB Corey BallentineComp Pick Formula Rules<\/p>\n Here are the rules that govern compensatory selections:<\/p>\n There are only 32 compensatory picks available to be spread out amongst the 32 franchises, but they are not distributed equally. Also, no team can receive more than four compensatory picks in any one draft.The picks are distributed across the third through seventh rounds, at the conclusion of the standard 32 picks of each round. Picks are not evenly distributed throughout these rounds, but rather done by a sliding cutoff scale.For each player a team signs, it cancels out a player that team lost. These are canceled out based on the value of the contracts. If a team loses a player valued as a third-round pick, and a player valued as a fifth round pick, but sign a player who\u2019s valued as a third\u2026 then the team gets the fifth-round pick compensation. The third-round picks cancel out. However, if they sign a player who\u2019s valued as a fourth, then he would cancel out the lower player, and said team would get compensated with the third-round pick.On top of salary concerns, not every free agent signed or lost qualifies for compensatory consideration. There are ways to sign players that won\u2019t add to the \u201cplayers signed\u201d ledger. Players who are cut from other teams, players who were RFAs or ERFAs who weren\u2019t tendered, players signed after \u201cMay 12th\u201d (specific date will vary year-to-year).The primary determining factor of which round a team is compensated with for a lost player is the Adjusted Average Annual Value of that player\u2019s deal with his new team,\u00a0compared to the rest of the league. There are levels associated with each round of compensation and teams are slotted in order within those rounds based on the rankings. Playing time and postseason awards are factored in at a much lesser weight. See Over The Cap’s active tracker of where values of each new contract slot<\/a>.The player must stay with his new team through Week 10 of the next season to qualify.Occasionally, teams will be awarded “net value” comp picks, which is where the volume of QFA lost and signed evens out, but the difference in quality of players is so severe the team still earns an extra selection.<\/p>\n Multiple players cannot be rolled into a higher compensatory. For instance, Dallas having 5 players with the last two being 6th round comps, will not move it to a 5th rounder.<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/86373428007-square-1.jpg\")