On a busy day that has seen the NFL announce the 2021 salary cap at $182M, the league just revealed the recipients for this year’s compensatory draft picks, with Dallas Cowboys receiving four of the 37 selections. America’s Team will receive picks in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth round in the 2021 NFL Draft. The additional draft capital gives them a total of 10 selections this coming April.
Cowboys Compensatory Picks
No team received more compensatory picks than the Cowboys’ four selections. The selections are likely the result of Dallas losing Byron Jones, Robert Quinn, Randall Cobb and Jeff Heath in NFL Free Agency last spring. However, the exact formula for knowing how they are dispersed is complex and undefined.
Th 2021 offseason is also the first that the NFL has awarded compensatory picks based on their push for hiring minority coaches and executives. This is why the amount of selections given out was 37 instead of the traditional 32. Five picks at the end of the third round were handed out to teams that lost coaches or front office members.
The 49ers were allotted the first two for losing Robert Saleh and Martin Mayhew. In addition, the Rams also received one for losing Brad Holmes, as did the Ravens for losing David Culley and the Saints for losing Terry Fontenot.
Cowboys Draft Picks
As for the Cowboys, their official selections are listed below:
- First Round, Pick 10
- Second Round, Pick 44
- Third Round, Pick 75
- Third Round, Pick 99
- Fourth Round, Pick 116
- Fourth Round, Pick 139
- Fifth Round, Pick 179
- Sixth Round, Pick 192
- Sixth Round, Pick 227
- Seventh Round, Pick 238
The Cowboys do not own their original fifth-round pick, after moving up in 2020 to grab Tyler Biadasz. They also don’t hold their sixth-round selection, thanks to the addition of Michael Bennett at the trade deadline in 2019. However, they did obtain Detroit’s sixth-rounder via this year’s trade deadline, in which the Lions received Everson Griffen.
Dallas famously drafted Dak Prescott with a fourth-round compensatory pick awarded for the loss of Demarco Murray in 2016. Also, prior to the NFL limiting compensatory selections to the third round or later, the Cowboys received the 46th overall pick in 1994. They used it to select future-Hall of Famer Larry Allen.
