Cowboys now have all 8 draft picks under contract, work out two former 1st-round picks

Dallas Cowboys vice president Stephen Jones has often said that player acquisition is a year-round job.

Following the conclusion of last week’s minicamp and roughly five weeks before the start of training camp in late July, the Cowboys are dipping into the United Football League for potential roster additions.

The Cowboys worked out four players from the UFL on Tuesday, including cornerbacks Gareon Conley and Deandre Baker, who were both former first-round NFL draft picks

Conley and Baker played for the DC Defenders.

The Cowboys are also worked out Michigan Panthers linebacker Noah Dawkins and St. Louis Battlehawks linebacker Willie Harvey Jr..

It was a clear sign that the team is continuing look for talent on the defense.

The Cowboys have four open roster spots for training camp, though no UFL players can be signed until next week.

Conley is a former first-round pick from the Las Vegas Raiders in 2017. He played two-and-a-half seasons with Raiders before he was traded to the Houston Texans. He has not played in the NFL since 2019. He spent the past two seasons with the Defenders.

Baker was a former first-round selection of the New York Giants in 2019 where he notched 61 tackles and eight pass deflections as a rookie. He was waived after just one season following an arrest following for armed robbery that put him on the commissioner’s exempt.

The charges were eventually dropped and he landed with the Kansas City Chiefs for two seasons, playing in 10 games.

Dawkins, who played three seasons with the Buccaneers and Jets from 2019-2021, recorded 38 tackles for the Panthers in 2023.

The cream of the crop might be Harvey Jr., who was the UFL’s leading tackler in 2024 with 78. He led all linebackers in tackles for loss (9) and forced fumbles (2). Harvey Jr. spent two seasons in the NFL with Cleveland in 2019 and 2021.

The Cowboys have a history of success of mining talent from the UFL with kick returner KaVontae Turpin in 2022 and kicker Brandon Aubrey in 2023 both becoming Pro Bowlers.

The Cowboys took care of some in-house business by signing second-round defensive end Marshawn Kneeland to his rookie deal.

The team now has all eight draft picks under contract.