Cowboys' RB Tony Pollard to Sign with Ravens? Rumor, Treasure or Trash?

Dallas Cowboys' RB Tony Pollard to Sign with Baltimore Ravens? Rumor, Treasure or Trash?

FRISCO - To paraphrase the old saying, "One team's treasure is another team's ...''

No, Tony Pollard isn't "trash.'' The Dallas Cowboys running back is a two-time 1,000-yard rusher and has played in a Pro Bowl. He's just 27 and has a quality reputation as a teammate ... with some truly electrical skills as well.

But Dallas is clearly not prioritizing "TP'' as a signing ... at least certainly not at the going franchise-tag rate of $12 million, nor at the $10 million rate that he earned on the tag last year.

So we move into the "NFL Gossip'' portion of the program, and few in the media do that sort of thing in a volume to match ESPN's Jeremy Fowler.

And we shall see if the report is "trash.''

Fowler writes that "some personnel people inside the league believe" that Baltimore will look to "target a running back with pedigree" in free agency.

It's a "tricky'' report. ... just specific enough to draw the eye yet just vague enough to keep the author from getting pinned down by facts.

The Baltimore Ravens have running backs Gus Edwards and J.K. Dobbins about to hit free agency. ... so along comes the Pollard suggestion after he took over from Ezekiel Elliott as "America's Team's'' primary ball-carrier.

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The bad news in Dallas: Pollard's average rushing yards per game went from 5.2 to 4.0. ... and the Cowboys are surely factoring that in as they consider turning the page. There is Dallas gossip about big-name runners, too - Derrick Henry, anyone? - but CowboysSI.com has been told that using a non-first-round pick on a runner is more likely.

Pollard is about to get his "last big contract,'' as the shelf life of running backs in the NFL continues to shrink ... and we can imagine that "electricity'' being fully-charged in a Lamar Jackson-led backfield. But at this point? We're not sure if the Ravens are "imaging'' this ... or if it's just ESPN gossip doing the imaging.