There’s a major part of trade rumors and the conversations that surround them that always seems to be left out in typical discussions. That’s the fact of whether or not the team can afford to bring on a given player. While yes, the salary cap can be managed and massaged in a way that pretty much any contract can be absorbed, that kind of finagling is normally reserved for early in the offseason.
That’s part of the reason why the Dallas Cowboys were limited in the amount of suitors who could’ve bid for star edge rusher Micah Parsons last August. A lot of teams spent all of their cash reserves early in the offseason. Though Parsons’ new deal cost just under $10 million of cap space, a ton of actual cash went his way. For Myles Garrett, who was traded on Monday from the Cleveland Browns to the Los Angeles Rams, the salary cap hit is very similar.
The Cowboys, along with the Philadelphia Eagles and Seattle Seahawks, were rumored to have been interested in acquiring Garrett as well. For Dallas, that raises the question of how would they have afforded to bring Garrett in and what would they have offered the Browns in return?
Dallas entered the day with just over $8 million in cap space, fourth-lowest in the entire NFL. This comes after doing a lot of restructuring work during the early offseason in order to afford the players they already acquired. The team already restructured their two biggest offensive weapons, QB Dak Prescott, OL Tyler Smith and WR CeeDee Lamb, to drop their base salaries down near league minimum. They also restructured the deals of Kenny Clark and Rashan Gary, while having Malik Hooker and Terence Steele to take pay cuts to remain on the team.
Teams generally like to carry several million dollars into the league year, so that they can swing trades to fill holes, or sign players to fill in for players on IR. In other words, the Cowboys didn’t have many options when it came to acquiring pricey talent.
Even though Garrett’s cap hit is just over $9 million for the coming season (he’ll make over $33.5 million in cash), the Cowboys couldn’t immediately afford it, and their options to create more space would be limited.
One option, and seeing how the Browns insisted on bringing back a young, star player in return for Garrett, landing edge Jared Verse, would be to find a player who fit the Browns’ liking.
Could the Cowboys have been offering wideout George Pickens in a trade?
Pickens clearly isn’t a one-to-one match for Verse, as the latter plays the same position as Garrett and is still on his rookie deal, while Pickens is set to cost $27.3 million under the franchise tag.
While many speculated on Twitter that the Cowboys could’ve explored this possibility, Pickens would have to agree to this trade because an extension would have to be on the table. Even after jettisoning Garrett, Cleveland still only has $16.8 million in space, not enough to absorb Pickens’ one-year hit.
Besides, they weren’t going to gamble on just a single season of Pickens; they’d want the extension locked in before consummating the trade.
This doesn’t mean the idea wasn’t discussed, but there would be a lot more moving parts for this to have taken place.
Another option the Cowboys could’ve considered in trying to acquire Garrett would’ve been to offer a similar draft package as to what they acquired when they traded away Parsons, two first-round picks. But they’d still need to create wiggle room just to absorb Garrett’s deal.
Would they touch contracts they’ve been hesitant to, such as CB DaRon Bland or DT Quinnen Williams? They certainly appear to be centering their defense around Williams, so that seems like the more logical of the two. Bland may or may not be a fit for Christian Parker’s defense and he has an injury history where the team wants to keep all of their options open.
These same questions will remain as the conversation shifts back to other trade candidates; Josh Sweat, Jordyn Brooks, or even a check back in on Maxx Crosby’s knee condition. The Cowboys will basically have to maneuver things around for any acquisition.
This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Cowboys Salary Cap: Was Pickens in a trade offer for Browns’ Garrett?
Reporting by K.D. Drummond, Cowboys Wire / Cowboys Wire
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