The Dallas Cowboys traded with the San Francisco 49ers on Day 2 of the 2026 NFL Draft to acquire linebacker Dee Winters, sending the 152nd-overall pick to San Francisco in return. The move brought the 25-year-old back to Texas, where he was born and raised.
Winters was a sixth-round pick of the 49ers in 2023, but his NFL path now shifts to Dallas after the Cowboys added him with a fifth-round selection. He entered the league out of TCU, where he spent his entire collegiate career and was named a First-team All-Big 12 talent in 2022.
The deal also gives San Francisco another draft asset after it moved Winters and picked up the 152nd-overall pick, a fifth-rounder in 2026. For Dallas, the trade fits a clear need: the Cowboys had been trying to address linebacker since the start of free agency and entered Day 2 without a second-round pick.
There was already familiarity between the clubs. Weeks before the draft, the Cowboys and 49ers agreed to a separate deal that sent Osa Odighizuwa to Santa Clara in exchange for the 92nd-overall pick, leaving the teams tied together again when Winters became available. Dallas also had a useful scouting edge on the linebacker because he played at TCU, giving the club a close look at him long before draft weekend.
The trade sends Winters back to his home state and gives the Cowboys another swing at a position they had been targeting for weeks. What Dallas did not have on Day 2 was the luxury of waiting; without a second-round pick, the club had to use the rest of the draft board to fill a hole it knew was there.