Grade the Trade: Cowboys take catastrophic loss on CeeDee Lamb proposal

Until the Dallas Cowboys sign wide receiver CeeDee Lamb to a massive contract extension, the NFL content mill is going to be churning out ideas of how and where he could be traded. That's just the reality of things.

Unfortunately, most of the trade proposals that get thrown out there are similar to the offers you receive when you play fantasy football. How about three of my backups for your best starter? Sound like a fair trade? A recent article from Bleacher Report embodies this kind of ridiculous trade idea on a number of fronts.

They put together a list of four potential trade ideas involving CeeDee Lamb and they are all absolutely outrageous.

CeeDee Lamb trade proposals would send Cowboys fans over the edge

• Cowboys get: Ja’Lynn Polk, 2025 first-round pick 
• Patriots get: CeeDee Lamb 

The first trade proposal was with the New England Patriots sending the Cowboys a first-round pick and rookie wide receiver Ja'Lynn Polk, a high second-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. That's nowhere near good enough of a package to get one of the best receivers in the league off the Cowboys' hands, especially because Dallas has given no indication that they want to trade Lamb. This would be akin to a trade dump of Dallas's best skill player. Grade: F

• Cowboys get: Ladd McConkey, 2025 first-round pick 
• Chargers get: CeeDee Lamb

The second proposal was easily the most hilarious of them all. It was the Los Angeles Chargers sending the Cowboys Ladd McConkey and a first-round pick for CeeDee Lamb. The Chargers just drafted McConkey in 2024 and figure to pick a lot lower in 2025 than they did in 2024 after hiring Jim Harbaugh as their new head coach. When you talk about a "catastrophic" loss in value, this is the embodiment of that. Grade: F

• Cowboys get: George Pickens, 2025 second-round pick 
• Steelers get: CeeDee Lamb 

Bleacher Report also suggested a trade of George Pickens to Dallas along with a second-round pick for CeeDee Lamb. Who wouldn't want to trade for Pickens -- a player who is also going to need an extension soon and is way less established than CeeDee Lamb -- along with a pick somewhere in the 50s next year? Grade: F

• Cowboys get: Christian Watson or Romeo Doubs, Jayden Reed, 2025 second-round pick 
• Packers get: CeeDee Lamb 

The most reasonable suggestion made by Bleacher Report from Dallas' perspective would have been their projected trade with the Green Bay Packers. It involved one of Romeo Doubs or Christian Watson along with Jayden Reed and a second-round pick coming to the Cowboys for Lamb. The thing is, that kind of trade idea seems to completely whiff on what the value of those players for the Packers bring to the table. Both Doubs and Watson have been good when healthy, and Jayden Reed was one of the best rookies in the NFL last year. Grade: D

Ultimately, these projected trade packages simply fall painfully short of reflecting proper value in exchange for a player like CeeDee Lamb. You can't compare his situation right now to that of Tyreek Hill when he was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs, because the Chiefs had drawn a line in the sand contract-wise with Hill and were willing to let him explore deals around the league.

We're currently not in the "go find the best deal you can" stage of talking about CeeDee Lamb, but more so in the "blow the Cowboys away with an offer and see what happens" stage. We're talking about being in the king's ransom realm. Ladd McConkey and a first-round pick isn't going to cut it, but all four of these teams would be laughed off the phone if they called Jerry Jones with these offers.