The Dallas Cowboys will take the field on Saturday against the Seattle Seahawks. With a condensed preseason schedule of only three games, there isn’t much playing time for players at the bottom of the roster to get meaningful snaps in live action.
With the intent to trim the roster from 90 to 53 players, the Cowboys will have to place a substantial amount of talent on waivers and risk losing them for nothing. It’s not to say the Cowboys have a surplus of premier options on the 90-man roster, but essentially
if they have to part with the talent they have, a trade for a player or more plausibly, future assets aren’t a crazy idea.
Before anyone tries to reignite the embers on trading George Pickens, nope. It’s not going to happen. The Cowboys look like they are trying to field a team capable of contending for a deep playoff run, and trading Pickens for a team ready to win now is counterintuitive.
The team looks content to worry about his contract when the time comes, and so does Pickens, it would seem. So who else? What other player is the most reasonable option for Dallas to trade?
Luke Schoonmaker
When looking at the Cowboys roster as a whole, its glaring how obvious of a trade candidate Luke Schoonmaker becomes. Schoonmaker was taken way too high for the team’s ambitions, and even at the time, fans knew spending a second-round pick on a tight end where Dak Prescott could get the most out of nearly any tight end wasn’t a good idea.
Schoonmaker hasn’t provided the team enough return on investment and should be on the outs with the team. In the time since Schoonmaker was drafted, Jake Ferguson has stepped up and taken control of the #1 tight end spot and earned a sizable payday, ensuring there’s no chance Schoonmaker surpasses him. Brevyn Spann-Ford has entered the picture. He is much better at blocking and has started to flash some upside as a pass catcher. With Schoonmaker and Spann-Ford both in contract years, Spann-Ford seems the most reasonable to extend.
It doesn’t stop there either. Undrafted tight end Michael Trigg has been making plays at training camp, and it’s hard not to notice his skills as a pass catcher. With his athleticism, he’s sure to catch the eye of 31 other teams during the preseason, especially with the Cowboys playing in an isolated window on Saturday night.
The season-ending injury to Princeton Fant didn’t provide Schoonmaker with breathing room for long, as Dallas added Zack Kuntz off waivers shortly after Fant’s injury. Envision how the Cowboys see the position: Ferguson as the tight end one of the group, Brevyn Spann-Ford as the number two option, Trigg as the athletic project. Don’t be surprised to see the Cowboys move Schoonmaker for a day-three pick.
Sure, there’s other names some could consider, but none make as much sense as Schoonmaker. The Cowboys appear to have a deep room at cornerback, but questions still surround DaRon Bland’s health, Shavon Revel’s confidence, and where Caleb Downs will spend most of his time. The secondary isn’t top heavy for the Cowboys and the team shouldn’t be as willing to part with their secondary or tertiary options on the depth chart. You can also make the same argument for inside linebacker as well.
With that said, who are some players you think the team should trade?
