Buried among the intrigue of the 2026 NFL Draft Day 2, the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers made a Dee Winters trade. The Cowboys acquired the linebaker for pick 152 in the fifth round of the 2026 draft. How did each team make out in this deal? Let’s look at the Dee Winters trade grades for the Cowboys and the 49ers.
Dallas Cowboys get LB Dee Winters
Winters is a fourth-year linebacker who the 49ers drafted out of TCU in the sixth round of the 2023 NFL Draft. In his first two seasons with the club, he was a core special teamer, racking up 388 snaps in that phase of the game. However, he also gained more and more defensive snaps each season, going from 60 to 398 to 993.
With nearly 1,000 snaps in his third season, Winters broke out. He put up 101 tackles, eight tackles for a loss, five passes defended, and an interception.
The former Horned Frog is undersized for an NFL linebacker at just 5-foot-11, 227 pounds. He has elite speed for the position, though, making him one of the better coverage LBs in the league right now and a sideline-to-sideline run defender. He may not be an elite middle linebacker, but he is a solid one, and he plays the game the way most defensive coordinators want their inside linebackers to play these days. Winters is almost as much of a big safety as he is a linebacker.
Giving up a mid-Day 3 selection for a starting LB is an excellent deal for the Cowboys. Yes, they may have hoped for a bigger name in free agency or via trade, but Winters is a proven commodity, and at just 25, there is still some upside. In a draft where there are plenty of 25-year-old prospects coming out of college, getting Winters is way better than whatever they would get with pick 152.
GRADE: A
San Francisco 49ers get a fifth-round pick
The 49ers have All-Pro Fred Warner at one inside linebacker spot, and they just brought back long-time Niner Dre Greenlaw after one year away with the Denver Broncos. That means a few things for San Francisco. It means that Winters’ snap count would have dropped this season, and it also means that they have over $20 million committed to off-ball linebackers.
What it may signal more than anything, though, is that new defensive coordinator Raheem Morris wants different personnel than Robert Saleh did.
Winters would have been a great backup this season who could have played on passing downs for sure. His speed makes him a valuable and versatile player that most teams could use. He’s also making just over $3 million this season in the last year of his rookie deal, and the Niners have plenty of cap room. So, in a vacuum, this deal doesn’t make a ton of sense.
There are a few factors that help make it make sense. Winters was a sixth-round selection, and they got a fifth-rounder back for him, so that’s a win there. Also, while they obviously do not want to pay him in free agency next season, they didn’t want to let him walk for nothing either. And if he truly doesn’t fit Morris’ system and the new DC would like a different style LB on Day 3 of the draft, then this could be a good move in their minds.
Ultimately, it seems like there would be more value in keeping Dee Winters on the roster for 2026 while the 49ers are fighting for the Super Bowl, but you can see some reasons why the 49ers disagree. All in all, this isn’t a bad deal, it just seems like an average one for San Francisco at best unless they truly hit on that late-round selection.
GRADE: C+
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