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May 3rd came and went and the Cowboys didn’t engage in any notable free agent activity. Why is that important? Starting at 4:00 pm ET on the Monday after the draft, free agent losses and acquisitions no longer counted toward the determination of compensatory draft picks. And that means we can take a look at how many comp picks the Cowboys stand to get in 2022.
Not every player lost or signed qualifies as a compensatory free agent who would count against the comp pick formula. In total, the Cowboys added two compensatory free agents and lost three for a net difference of one. Here’s how those playes cancel each other out, per OverTheCap.com:
| Comp. Free Agents lost: 3 | Comp. Free Agents gained: 2 | ||||
| Player | Round | Annual Value | Contract Value | Round | Annual value |
| Andy Dalton | 4 | $10.0M | |||
| Chidobe Awuzie | 5 | $7.3M | Tarell Basham | 7 | $2.8M |
| Cameron Erving | 6 | $5.0M | Keanu Neal | 6 | $4.0M |
In previous years, the Cowboys could theoretically have increased their comp picks by releasing both Tarrell Basham and Keanu Neal before Week 10 of 2021, but that rule appears to have been abolished by the NFL.
As it is, the Cowboys will most likely get a comp pick for Andy Dalton, and that pick currently looks like it will be a fourth-round pick, but that’s it.
The Cowboys had four compensatory picks this year, and we can only hope they used them wisely, because it will be slim pickings on the compensatory pick front next year.