We passed an important deadline this Tuesday, one that NFL teams have been waiting for.

If clubs sign free agents at this point in the offseason the moves do not impact the compensatory pick formula for next offseason. Nobody wants to put themselves in a position where they can’t receive as many picks as possible, that’s good practice.

The Dallas Cowboys were awarded a fourth-round compensatory pick during this most recent draft thanks to Anthony Hitchens joining the Kansas City Chiefs a year ago. We know that Stephen Jones and the rest of the front office value their comp picks and don’t like to do anything that would inhibit them receiving any.

Unfortunately, the exact formula for how the league determines comp picks is kept behind some steel vault somewhere (I once visited the Coca-Cola museum and they have a similar vault for their recipe), but it’s easy for experts to take stabs at. The general idea is that if you lose free agents to big contracts you’re likely to land one, but you decrease your chances yourself if you sign your own large contracts.

The Cowboys aren’t expected to get any comp picks next offseason

Earlier this week NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein took a look at next offseason and did his best to project which teams would be receiving compensatory picks and exactly how many they would get. It truly is impossible to know but we can have a solid idea.

The Cowboys lost some guys like Cole Beasley and Geoff Swaim, and of course brought in players like Randall Cobb and George Iloka. Ultimately they really didn’t swing the pendulum one way or the other, and if you buy Zierlein’s projection then you might as well get used to the number of picks that the Cowboys already have.

He projects them not to earn a compensatory pick in 2020. Womp womp.

While the good guys aren’t expected to receive any comp picks next offseason, unfortunately their division rivals are. Zierlein has each of the Cowboys’ division rivals earning two compensatory picks in varying rounds.

It’s never nice to see any non-Cowboys NFC East team pick up any more picks, but again none of this is a guarantee. Hopefully Dallas is able to use their already-in-place draft picks next offseason to continue to build on their impressive roster.

We do know one thing, their first pick will be 32nd overall. Right?!