The Dallas Cowboys prefer to build their roster with homegrown talent. They don’t trust what players have done for other organizations and look at hefty contracts as promotions. Only those players who have provided a return on an initial investment are worthy of big-time contracts with Dallas. The Joneses simply don’t want to pay big money to employees who have made their marks with other organizations. Therefore draft picks are at a premium to the club and whenever possible they want to make sure they get as many compensatory picks as possible, even if it means sitting out free agency until after the comp pick deadline passes. That time is today, Monday May 2 at 3:00 p.m. Central.
In this past weekend’s draft exercise, Dallas had two comp picks in the fifth round, No. 176 and No. 178 in exchange for losing QB Andy Dalton to the Chicago Bears and CB Chidobe Awuzie to the Cincinnati Bengals. For this year’s free agency, Dallas will have three additional picks in the 2023 NFL draft.
The Cowboys are one of the few teams who have mastered the compensatory pick formula. A long time ago, as part of the collective bargaining process, the NFL and NFLPA agreed that teams should be compensated with draft picks if they lose a player to free agency. Unrestricted free agents, players who have the ability to sign with any team they can reach an agreement with, enter into what used to be a complex formula that determines their worth in terms of draft slotting.
In a nutshell, if a team loses more compensatory free agents than it signs, the league makes them whole again by awarding a comp pick. The level of that comp pick is mostly determined by that players APY, their average annual salary. Playing time is also factored in, but for players who start the majority of the season, APY is the key.
Here’s a look at the rules, and which players Dallas was awarded picks for.