The Dallas Cowboys Begin 2020 Fire Sale
The first domino has fallen in the great Dallas Cowboys fire sale of 2020.
At least I hope it has.
The Dallas Cowboys are leaderless on the field without Dak Prescott, with no one to fill the void. Travis Frederick might have, but he's retired. Tyron Smith or La'el Collins might have, but they're both on IR. Jason Witten and Jeff Heath are in Las Vegas. Byron Jones is in Miami, and the Cowboys are floundering at 2-5.
Are they within striking distance of 1st place in the NFC East? Yes. But the playoffs are meant for teams who have a shot at the Super Bowl, and this team flat-out doesn't. Why lose 12 spots of draft leverage by making the playoffs when you can be in the top 5 instead?
Seemingly, that's the Cowboys' thought process after they traded Everson Griffen to the Detroit Lions this morning.
Doing so also allows the Cowboys to play their young defensive lineman more snaps to evaluate whether they're good enough to contribute moving forward.
The Cowboys are still looking to trade Dontari Poe and Daryl Worley, but will cut them if they can't find a dance partner by Wednesday afternoon.
The Cowboys can't trade any offensive lineman because they only have five good ones left on the roster. They have too much invested in Zeke Elliott to trade him off, and Tony Pollard would fetch a grand return. The defense doesn't have anybody that would net much in return either. Maybe DeMarcus Lawrence, but if you trade a major piece like Lawrence, you're looking at a long-term rebuild instead of a quick turnaround.
The best trade return on investment would be to trade Michael Gallup. I know. I don't like getting rid of him either. But he's the most valuable trade asset the Cowboys have and is still on his rookie deal. If you could flip him for a valuable draft pick or two, that's worth it.
The guy I would definitely trade is Amari Cooper. He routinely doesn't show up in big moments. There are also guys who could step up in his absence, with CeeDee Lamb, Cedrick Wilson, and Noah Brown on the depth chart.