Blogging The Boys
It is often said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. How two people look at something could yield two entirely different points of evaluation. If you think it is worth a lot then you would likely be willing to pay a heavier price than someone who doesn’t. This disposition often comes into play relative to rosters in the NFL, but there are certain rules that make things more objective.
Relative to football and the finances of constructing a roster there are five positions that generally command more money than the others. It pays to be a quarterback, wide receiver, left tackle, edge rusher, or cornerback of serious skill as those positions are inherently more valuable because of the way the game works. You can provide a bigger difference there.
Value is subjective and filtering it through various forms is a ton of fun.
The great Bill Barnwell took it upon himself recently to identify how many players on each NFL team carry the value of a first-round pick. The idea here is if said players were to ever be made available in some sort of trade, but obviously a lot of them listed (he did this for every team as noted) would never even reach that point. This is for fun.
In Barnwell’s estimation there are five players on the Cowboys who could fetch a first-round pick and more.
One first-round pick and more: G Tyler Booker, WR CeeDee Lamb, QB Dak Prescott, G Tyler Smith, DT Quinnen Williams. The Cowboys just sent this sort of haul to acquire Williams, and between Booker and Smith, they have the NFL’s best 1-2 punch at guard. Lamb’s contract, which pays the 2020 first-round pick like one of the highest-paid wideouts in the game, might begin to look worrisome if he’s unable to reach the heights we saw in 2023 again sometime soon.
Prescott’s value would be a fascinating discussion in its own right if the Cowboys star ever chose to waive his no-trade clause. His four-year, $240 million extension is the most player-friendly contract in the league, and it’s a product of owner Jerry Jones mishandling Prescott’s initial run toward free agency in 2019 and 2020. I’m not sure other teams see Prescott as that caliber of quarterback, although his consistency on the field would appeal to franchises that haven’t been able to find a steady hand under center.
As noted the Cowboys just paid a similar price to this to acquire Quinnen Williams so you would hope that he would still go for it. Dallas has established themselves as having the best duo of interior linemen in the NFL, Tyler Smith was recently acknowledged as the top one, and both Tylers were first-round picks so this tracks. As far as Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb are concerned they are both top five-ish at their respective positions, and as they play at the money five spots...
