Cowboys 'Exploring' Trade Up 'To Late Teens' In NFL Draft - Sources

"It will be - if you will - a game-day decision,'' Stephen Jones said of trade-up exploration, and true to their word, right now, the Dallas Cowboys are treating trade-up talk as if it is indeed "game day.''

FRISCO - The Dallas Cowboys opened this NFL Draft Week owner Jerry Jones revealing that he is yearning to make a "splash" via trade but also with COO Stephen Jones cautioning that nothing is "in concrete'' because a trade would be a "game-day decision.''

Well, it's game day. And according to two league sources, the Cowboys are engaging in what one called the "exploring'' of a trade up from No. 26 in Round 1 "to teams in the late teens.''

"I do catch myself thinking about a trade," Jerry said on Monday. "But if that phone ain't ringing, it's because nobody's calling." But now? Somebody is calling.

Jerry said of drafting at 26, "The problem is, the players that will get to us will have some warts on them." And logically, the higher Dallas can move, the fewer the warts that'll have to be endured.

Who could the targets be? Stephen said Dallas will have "15, 16, 18 or so" first-round grades. In the game of educated guessing, that's probably a smart place to start; How high must the Cowboys move to get a first-round-graded player?

Another fulcrum point: What well-thought-of prospect will somehow slip to "the late teens''? And one more: Which team will be disinterested enough in that player to swap him for picks?

The "idea list'' here has to include Texas running back Bijan Robinson, though he seems unlikely to last until "the late teens. But if he does? Maybe the Steelers at No. 17 (with young Najee Harris already in place) would move. What if that "plug-and-play'' left guard candidate is still on the board as we move to "the late teens''? (Tennessee's Darnell Wright is considered a tackle, but Dallas might think otherwise.)

And then there is the won't-go-away notion of the Cowboys being hell-bent on taking a potential starter at tight end. Will Utah's Dalton Kincaid still be around? Notre Dame's Michael Mayer? They don't have to move up for Oregon State's Luke Musgrave, do they? How about just waiting on a later round for Iowa's Sam LaPorta? 

And then - in part because Dallas has so few glaring roster holes - the right receiver or edge rusher or whatever might also be move-worthy.

"It will be - if you will - a game-day decision,'' Stephen said, and true to their word, right now, the Dallas Cowboys are treating trade-up talk as if it is indeed "game day.''

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