Blogging The Boys
It would have been very cool for the Dallas Cowboys to bring a homegrown player back to Texas.
Before he became one of the best defenders in the NFL, Myles Garrett had a request. He pleaded to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to trade up from the back of the first round of the 2017 draft
to the top, where they would be in position to select the former Arlington Martin and Texas A&M star.“I’m pleading to you, Jerry,” he said in a video posted on ESPN. “Mr. [Jason] Garrett, make it happen. Dak Prescott is leading our team right now. I need you to take Tony Romo, a couple picks, and give them to Cleveland so you could pick me up. Please. I’d love to play in Dallas. Just make it happen.”
Garrett was selected first overall by the Browns and played there for nine years. And despite some fans pleading for Jones and the Cowboys to make a move for Garrett, who was reportedly available via trade, again he landed elsewhere.
In a blockbuster move that rattled the NFC, the Browns traded Garrett to the Los Angeles Rams. They dealt the seven-time All-Pro and the two-time Defensive Player of the Year for a first-round pick in 2027, a second-round pick in 2028 and a third-round pick in 2029. The Rams also sent defensive end Jared Verse in the trade. Verse, a former first-round pick, made the Pro Bowl in each of his first two NFL seasons.
In the wake of the deal, some Cowboys fans wondered why their team
didn’t swing a trade for the Arlington native. The better question is whether they could.
The answer: Likely not.
The main reasoning goes back to the trade itself. ESPN and NFL Network reported after Monday’s trade that the Rams had been interested in a trade for Garrett for some time. Their interest was to no avail, until the Rams decided to include Verse in the discussion. Verse is not Garrett, but he’s 25 and a proven piece on a rookie deal. Verse will have a cap hit of roughly $5 million the next two seasons combined. Garrett, 30, will have a cap hit of more than $24 million the next two seasons. That’s before a combined cap hit of roughly $113 million over the following three seasons.
The Cowboys’ schedule looks a lot different now that A.J. Brown is in the division.
One trade was speculated for months and the other fell out of the sky like a meteor, and with a similar impact, as wide receiver AJ Brown and all-world defensive end Myles Garrett, respectively, were dealt to other teams on June 1. The moves changed...
