The Cowboys currently have 74 players on their roster, a number that includes eight players acquired via free agency, two acquired via trade, and 10 players signed to reserve/future contracts. That leaves the Cowboys with 16 open spots on their offseason roster. The Cowboys currently have 10 picks in the NFL draft, which should bring their roster size to 84 players, That number, coupled with possible coming releases among their reserve/future players (all but one of which had been on the practice squad last year), leaves ample room to bring in undrafted free agents after the draft. There are about 6,000 draft-eligible players per year. Only 257 of those will actually get drafted this year. All other players sit through three days of the draft and don’t hear their names called. Some are crushed at not being selected, some didn’t expect to be selected in the first place, but all end up in the pool of undrafted free agents (UDFA) that’s available to teams immediately after the draft. “Every time we sign those 15 to 20 [UDFA] guys, we sign them from our draft board.” – Stephen Jones If you’re an UDFA, one of the better teams to sign with is Dallas. Everybody knows how the Cowboys developed UDFAs like Tony Romo and Miles Austin into NFL superstars, but there are many more UDFAs on the roster in Dallas. Last year alone: 10 former UDFAs started at least one game for the Cowboys: Terence Steele (17 starts), Rico Dowdle (15), Cooper Rush (8), Brock Hoffman (7), Hunter Luepke (4), T.J. Bass (3), Josh Butler (3), and Kavontae Turpin (2) all started at least one game for the Cowboys Seven former UDFAs (Brandon Aubrey, Markquese Bell, Princeton Fant, Jalen Moreno-Cropper, Brevyn Spann-Ford, Juanyeh Thomas, Tyrus Wheat) all saw playing time Two former UDFAs (TE John Stephens, OT Earl Bostick) spent the season on IR That’s quite a list, but it doesn’t stop there. More recently, former Cowboys UDFAs like Charvarious Ward (KC) or Peyton Hendershot (KC) found their way to Super Bowl rings with other teams after signing their first NFL contract as an UDFA with the Dallas Cowboys. WR Danny Amendola and QB Matt Moore are older examples of players that buil a career elsewhere after initially signing in Dallas. The Cowboys have historically taken on board more UDFAs than many other teams, and have been historically more successful than most other franchises at developing these UDFAs. Last year, the Cowboys signed 12 rookie UDFAs after the draft. Three of them are still with the Cowboys and three more are currently on the roster of another NFL team. That’s 50% of the UDFA class still in the NFL. Here’s an overview of last year’s UDFA class:

Player POS NFL Team 2024 2025 Status
Brevyn Spann-Ford TE Cowboys Cowboys
Brock Mogensen LB Cowboys Cowboys
Denzel Daxon DT Cowboys Cowboys
Emany Johnson S Chargers Chargers
Julius Wood S Titans Titans
Cam Johnson WR Panthers Panthers
Josh DeBerry S – – CFL: Hamilton Tiger Cats
Byron Vaughns DL – – UFL: Houston Roughnecks
Nathaniel Peat RB 
Jason Johnson LB 
Alec Holler TE 
Corey Crooms WR 

The Cowboys’ history with UDFAs is not just a bit of nice-to-know trivia shared with you on a lazy Sunday morning. It’s an argument the Cowboys actively when competing for the players available immediately after the draft, as Will McClay explained to The Athletic after last year’s draft:

The Cowboys’ success with college free agents is more than simple luck. One of the reasons for their success with UDFAs is that Chris Hall, director of college scouting for the Cowboys (and the long-haired guy in the Cowboys draft room during the draft), doesn’t allow his scouts to “come off grade”. If they have a grade on a guy before the draft, they have to stick with it after the draft. Which means that after the draft, they try and sign every guy still left on their draft board, as the Cowboys feel those players effectively amount to extra draft picks.  After last year’s draft, Stephen Jones said Dallas had about 10 players left on their board that they were trying to sign as free agents. Of those 10, the Cowboys say they ended up landing half.