Do you feel like the Cowboys trades this offseason have been fair?
The Dallas Cowboys are not big spenders in free agency. This has been something we have grown accustomed to for quite some time now. But while they shy away from that part of roster building, they have been quite active in making trades. Going back to the last three seasons, here are the players they have acquired (taking out the late-round pick swaps/additions).
2023
Stephon Gilmore – 5th round pick (2023)
Brandin Cooks – 5th round pick (2023) + 6th round pick (2024)
Trey Lance – 4th round pick (2024)
2024
Jonathan Mingo – 4th round pick (2025)
Jordan Phillips – 6th round pick (2026)
2025
George Pickens – 3rd round pick (2026) + 5th round pick (2027)
Joe Milton – 5th round pick (2025)
Kenneth Murray – 6th round pick (2025)
Kaiir Elam – 5th round pick (2025) + 7th round pick (2026)
The team has also done a couple of player swaps, who coincidentally were cornerbacks, by trading Nahshon Wright for Andrew Booth last year and Kelvin Joseph for Noah Igbinoghene the year before that.
When it comes to trading picks for players, that’s nine different players the Cowboys have acquired over the past three seasons. That’s a lot, especially considering they only made one trade (Johnathan Hankins) over the previous two seasons.
Some of these were trades that fans applauded. There are three trades listed above that feature late-round draft capital for a former first-round pick (Gilmore, Cooks, and Murray). Their draft costs were lower because the bigger part of the cost is reflected in the salary they also had to absorb, a la Amari Cooper.
But some of these trades were not so well received. Spending a fourth-round pick on Trey Lance was a clear mistake in hindsight, and many feel the team turned around and did it again when they traded another fourth-round pick for Jonathan Mingo last year. Even as much as most fans love having George Pickens on the team, a third-round pick isn’t chump change. That’s an expensive price for a team that relies so heavily on its draft to replenish its roster.
One thing we must consider about many of the deals the Cowboys have made to acquire these “change of scenery players” is that the team is using future picks to get them, and future picks come with a one-round discount. What a draft pick is worth today is not the same as what that same pick is worth next year. The reason is obvious, as one team gets immediate dividends while the other team must wait. We see trades like this happen all the time. If a team wants to jump back in the draft to take a player they absolutely love, but they don’t have enough draft capital left to do it, they’ll deal away future picks to get him. The Cowboys did this in 2017 to get Xavier Woods and again in 2023 to get Eric Scott Jr., where in both cases they traded a future fifth-rounder for a sixth-round pick that year.
Since draft capital now requires a more expensive pick later, the reverse is also true. If the Cowboys are getting a player now for a draft pick the following year, they’re really getting them for a one-round discount. When you apply the Jerry Jones promo code to some of these recent trades, they look like this:
George Pickens = 4th-round pick (one-round discount)
Jonathan Mingo = 5th-round pick (one-round discount)
Trey Lance = 5th-round pick (one-round discount)
Joe Milton = 5th-round pick
Kenneth Murray = 6th-round pick
Kaiir Elam = 6th-round pick (kickback refund)
The Pickens, Mingo, and Lance trades all come with a one-year discount, while the Elam price drops because the Cowboys also got a kickback draft pick in return (we explained that in more detail a couple of months ago). When you look at it this way, the Cowboys are giving up far less draft capital to acquire these players. Does that change your perspective on things?
Obviously, what the team gets out of these players on Sundays will sway the public opinion of these deals, but when you consider that most of these trades are later-round flyers, it’s really not that bad of an investment either way. Draft picks that late don’t typically come with much expectation, so it wouldn’t take much for the Cowboys to come out ahead. Players like Gilmore, Cooks, and Hankins have already outperformed their draft price, and there’s a good chance that at least one of these newer players will do the same. When you evaluate the Cowboys’ trades, their costs don’t end up being as high as they seemed initially.
