FRISCO, Texas — The NFL transaction wire showed six Dallas Cowboys jersey-number changes Wednesday, three days after Dallas set its initial 53-man roster.
Camden Brown now has No. 80 after wearing No. 6. Running back Israel Abanikanda changed from 30 to 25. Jonathan Bullard will wear 90 instead of 98. Wide receiver Jordan Hudson moved into No. 81 after spending camp in 18. Cornerback Ameer Speed changed from 39 to 23. Outside linebacker Tyrus Wheat is going from 90 to 59.
The league’s numbering rules give defensive linemen the 50s and 90s. Linebackers can use 1 through 59 or 90 through 99. For wide receivers, the available ranges are 1 through 49 and 80 through 89.
Five Of The Six Numbers Came Open Over The Last Three Weeks
No. 80 had belonged to Traeshon Holden before Dallas waived him Aug. 17 to make room for Von Miller. Holden came to Dallas as an undrafted rookie from Oregon in April 2025. His entire season was spent on the practice squad, with no regular-season appearance.
Two more of the numbers came open on cutdown day. Cornerback Trikweze Bridges wore 25 and running back Jaydon Blue wore 23, and Dallas waived both on Sunday. Blue signed with the Philadelphia Eagles practice squad the next day. Rookie defensive tackle D.J. Withers had 59 and was one of four defensive tackles the Cowboys waived Sunday.
One number simply moved from one Cowboy to another. Wheat gave up 90, and Bullard took it.
The Six Dallas Cowboys Who Changed Numbers
Brown spent camp and the preseason in No. 6. Dallas signed him as an undrafted free agent out of Georgia Southern in April. His preseason line was 9 catches for 177 yards and 2 touchdowns in three games, with both scores coming Aug. 15 against the Seattle Seahawks. In his final season at Georgia Southern, Brown caught 65 passes for 1,079 yards and 14 touchdowns. That made him the first receiver in school history to top 1,000 yards in a season. Before Georgia Southern, he spent three seasons at Auburn and finished there with 26 catches for 289 yards and 3 touchdowns. Brown learned through social media that he had made the 53 instead of receiving a call from the team.
Wheat is back in Dallas after a season in Detroit. The Cowboys waived him on Aug. 26, 2025, and the Detroit Lions claimed him the next day. He elected free agency on March 2 and signed with Dallas on March 11. Wheat had 1.5 sacks in 15 games for Detroit last season and has 2.0 sacks in 35 career games. Dallas originally signed him in May 2023 out of Mississippi State.
Bullard came to Dallas in late March on a deal worth up to $2.5 million, first reported by Mike Garafolo of NFL Network. Chicago made him a third-round pick in 2016 out of Florida. Now entering Year 11, Bullard is coming off a season in which he appeared in 15 games for the New Orleans Saints.
Speed signed with Dallas on June 17 after a five-game run with the Houston Gamblers in the UFL. He finished that stint with 20 tackles and 2 passes defensed. New England took him 214th overall in the 2023 draft. Speed has since appeared in 17 NFL games across stops with the Patriots, Indianapolis Colts, Chicago and Houston Texans, totaling 11 tackles.
Abanikanda and Hudson are both on the practice squad. The New York Jets drafted Abanikanda in the fifth round, 143rd overall, in 2023 out of Pittsburgh, and he has 22 carries for 70 yards and 7 receptions for 43 yards in 6 career games. Hudson went undrafted in April out of SMU. He caught 61 passes for 766 yards and 6 touchdowns as a senior and finished his four years at TCU and SMU with 144 receptions for 1,787 yards and 21 touchdowns.
Hudson’s new 81 is the number Jonathan Mingo wore through camp and the preseason. Mingo is on the 53-man roster and is expected to change numbers as well, Mike Moraitis of Dallas Cowboys On SI reported.
Von Miller’s No. 40 Has Not Reached The Wire
Miller has wanted No. 40 from fullback Hunter Luepke since agreeing to terms with Dallas on Aug. 16. Wednesday’s transaction wire still did not show the change. Miller said his opening offer was a lifetime supply of chicken, sent over Instagram, and that he also floated $40,000 to $50,000 to have Luepke’s entire body tattooed. Luepke came back with another proposal.
“Of course, being a great negotiator he is, he was like, how about equity in Greener Pastures Chicken,” Miller said. “I was like, it’s something that we could probably work out. He wanted 2% equity, which would be up in the multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars. But a piece of that, I was able to work it out. Don’t want to disclose what I was able to do, but we were able to work it out. And I’m like 90% sure that I’d be number 40.”
Greener Pastures Chicken is a 35-acre organic poultry farm in Elgin, Texas, that Miller co-founded. He majored in poultry science at Texas A&M and wore No. 40 there and at DeSoto High School. Miller’s full account of the negotiation came on the Season 2 premiere of his Audacy podcast, Free Range with Von Miller.
Luepke has worn No. 40 since arriving in Dallas as an undrafted free agent from North Dakota State in 2023. His current deal came Sept. 3, 2025, when he signed a two-year extension worth up to $7.5 million that runs through 2027.
Dallas starts the season Sept. 13 at the New York Giants. NBC will carry the 7:20 p.m. CT kickoff from MetLife Stadium.
