4 trades the Cowboys should consider before the deadline

Here are four players the Dallas Cowboys should consider making a trade for

The Dallas Cowboys have a firm hold of the NFC East division following Sunday’s matchups despite their 2-3 record. But due to the fact not a single team in their division has been able to secure more than one win through Week Six means regardless of the outcome Monday night against the Arizona Cardinals, the Cowboys will remain in first place in the lowly NFC East.

But that fact provides little comfort for a team that recently lost their starting quarterback for the season. The Cowboys will play the next 11 games without Dak Prescott under center, who was lost during their matchup against the New York Giants in Week Five to a serious ankle injury requiring season-ending surgery.

The team will press forward with backup quarterback Andy Dalton, a former three-time Pro Bowler with the Cincinnati Bengals who appears more than capable of leading America’s Team to an NFC East title within the worst division in the NFL. But he’ll need a strong supporting cast to do so.

And to that end, we thought we’d search through other NFL team rosters for players who are on expiring contracts and choose four whom we believe the Cowboys should consider making a trade for. Dallas has several holes to fill across their own roster due to injury and underwhelming play. And like the 2018 trade for wide receiver Amari Cooper, one of these players could drastically change the trajectory of the season in Big D.

One area that we are going to ignore in this proposal is the salary cap. The Cowboys appear to be positioning themselves financially to secure Prescott to a long-term deal or preparing to pay his franchise tag, estimated to be north of $37 million if taken in 2021. What their real plans are is anyone’s guess and who knows how the salary cap will be impacted due to COVID-19 this season.

The Cowboys have several high-priced players under contract and their future cap space is presumed to slim. But for the sake of this exercise, we’ll assume the front office is willing to do whatever it takes to make things work financially.

Another area to address is draft capital. With so much of their salary cap tied to high-profile players, Dallas will need several of their relatively inexpensive drafted rookies to play pivotal roles for the team immediately. So don’t expect them to give away those selections easily.

Yet, the Cowboys are set to receive a bounty of compensatory draft picks in 2021. One probably being as high as a third-round selection due to the loss of Pro Bowl cornerback Byron Jones in free agency earlier this year.

With that out of the way, here are four players we believe the Dallas Cowboys should consider making a trade for before the Nov. 3 deadline.