It is hard to see the Cowboys trading for Myles Garrett.
The only thing worse than the noise created by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is the noise created by the outside world. Whenever a big-name player is released or makes the news as a possible trade candidate, immediately the Cowboys are thrown into consideration. It doesn’t matter how unlikely the situation is, bring up Dallas and you have a story.
During Super Bowl week, one of the game’s best edge rushers, Myles Garrett, went public and requested a trade. And just like clockwork, Garrett was immediately a part of discussions that had him going to Dallas in a blockbuster trade. That’s the way it goes, we get it. Thinking about this longer than a few seconds makes this proposition unrealistic considering the Cowboys are likely months away from signing their own star edge rusher, Micah Parsons. Can we just please put this ember out before it starts smoking?
Nope.
Sadly, the Garrett goes to Dallas talks didn’t flame out. Quite the contrary. It started heating up as a couple of credible football sites decided to include this blockbuster trade in their most recent mock drafts. Last week, NFL.com did a mock draft that had the Cowboys trading for Garrett and then this week, PFF.com did the same thing. While their mocks contained different drafted players, the gist had the Cowboys giving up the 12th overall pick in this year’s draft plus next year’s first-rounder for Garrett.
While a move like this would do wonders for raising the hairs on the back of our necks in terms of excitement, there are so many factors that make this implausible.
The Cowboys need the picks
Breaking, breaking, read all about it – the Dallas Cowboys are trying to save money by building through the draft. The Cowboys have a lot of money committed to Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and soon to Parsons. They also have players like Tyler Smith and DaRon Bland who are entering the fourth year of their rookie contracts and also will get pricy second contracts soon.
With a top-heavy payroll, the Cowboys must make the most of their draft resources to keep bringing in low-cost talent. They are not in the position to trade those resources. And to even consider taking this approach is a heavy deviation from how the Cowboys front office operates.
Two first-rounders is a lot of draft capital to give up, especially with one of them being the 12th overall pick in April’s draft. Since 2020, the Cowboys have landed three top-talent players with their first-round picks so handing over two of them is a heavy price for a team that is pretty good at drafting players on Day 1.
The money is messy
Draft picks aside, a deal like this would come with financial implications. For the Cowboys, it’s not that bad. They would get Garrett for two years for roughly $20 million a season. That’s a good price for a player like Garrett, especially when you consider that the new deal that Parsons will command will push near the $40 year, that’s a bargain price!
The bad part of this for the Cowboys is that they’re not giving up two first-round picks for a two-year rental, which means to make this trade worth it, they’d need to give a contract extension and that would be hefty. That creates some tough financial decisions for a financially cautious team.
And it’s not that pleasant for the Cleveland Browns either. The Browns are one of two teams (the Eagles are the other) who have significantly pushed off costs into void years. The bookkeeping for Garrett over the remaining years on his contract looks like this (cap figures courtesy of spotrac.com)
spotrac.com
While the Cowboys inherit a $20 million hit for each of the next two seasons, the Browns would have all his restructuring money escalate into one expensive dead money hit. This is less than ideal for a team already on the hook for so much previously borrowed cap space coming due in the future.
For the Cowboys to seriously consider making a trade of this magnitude, it would almost mean they would need to turn around and trade away Parsons to keep within their budget and re-gain some of their draft capital. What would be the purpose of that? Micah is 25 years old and is in his prime. And while Garrett is still a remarkable talent, he will turn 30 next season. That doesn’t seem like a smart way to go.
Big moves are nice to think about, but oftentimes the logistics of it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. And when you factor in the Cowboys’ risk-averse nature, it makes even less sense. Experts can mock away, but a deal like this seems more like a pipe dream than a realistic option.