Cowboys Trade of All-Pro Tyron Smith for 1st-Round Pick? 3 Problems

“For me, it’s always been, 'Til the wheels fall off, 'til I can’t no more',” Tyron Smith has said of his playing future.

FRISCO - Tyron Smith has spent the last 11 seasons as a foundational piece of the Dallas Cowboys. And while some argue that the foundation is crumbling, the 2011 first-round pick once again got good grades from coaches in 2021 and made his eighth career Pro Bowl this season.

But while he remains a powerful force, Smith is not always a healthy force. And so maybe for the first time, it's worth examining a goodbye.

Our "Locked on Cowboys'' colleague Marcus Mosher mentions on the podcast this week in a purely speculative way - to his credit, no pretense of "sources'' - that it might be time.

Mosher asks if Tyron Smith could be traded to the Baltimore Ravens in exchange for the 14th overall pick in April's NFL Draft, or if the Cincinnati Bengals might part with the 31st overall selection.

All of this is worthy of a brainstorming session. And in the end, we come up with three obstacles:

1 - Injury Issues: Tyron missed six regular season games in 2021 and all but two the previous year. Smith last played a full season in 2015. At 31, the tread is inevitably coming off the tires. As a result, for the second straight offseason, there is "buzz'' about how much longer Smith wants to do this.

That buzz flies in the face of what Tyron himself has said.

“For me, it’s always been, 'Til the wheels fall off, 'til I can’t no more', ”Smith said of his playing future. “I can’t give you a time estimate or anything like that, but I’m going to go as long as I can. Whether it’s four or five years or whatever.”

Now, that was in June. But still, it sounds like a future Hall-of-Famer who wants to keep plowing away.

Point being: His next team would need some assurances that it is getting a healthy Tyron Smith. At a salary of $13.6 million in each of the next two years (followed by a voidable year in 2024), the Ravens would want to make sure "the wheels haven't fallen off.''

2 - Cowboys Aftermath: The Cowboys are counting on the emergence of some of their up-and-coming offensive linemen. Terrence Steele taking over at left tackle? He's not Tyron. Connor McGovern? His elevation could allow a shuffle that helps at left tackle, but he's not Tyron. Rookie Josh Ball? He's not ready to even be a McGovern-level contributor.

All of this means a Tyron trade leaves two holes, one obvious one in the O-line and one more subtle one on the salary cap, the latter hole for this reason: A trade of Tyron saves $5.6 million off the cap - but still leaves Dallas paying the cap $7 million for a player no longer on the roster.

Would you rather pay Tyron $13.6 million to play, or pay the cap $7 million for him not to play? (See all the Cowboys' "Cap Hell'' numbers here.)

3 - Tyron's Trade Value: Mosher is smart to ask the question in an open-ended way, because there is no way to find out of Smith is worth a first-rounder until Dallas surveys potential bidders. But we would theorize that the closer we get to the draft, the more teams treat those picks like gold. That would be a blockade. Additionally, we'll bet the Ravens at 14 think they can draft a starting O-lineman there, and get a load of this: The slotted salary for a mid-first round pick is about $16 million total. For four years of contract! (Last year's Cowboys pick No. 12. Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons, has a contract that in its entirety is worth $16,249,544.) 

Would a team rather have a "gold-plated'' first-round rookie making $4 million APY, or an aging All-Pro making $13.6 million APY.

And a final obstacle about the market: It so happens that Texans tackle Laremy Tunsil - the 13th overall pick in 2016 who is just 28 and was deemed worthy of a contract extension in 2020 worth $66 million in new money (meaning the NFL viewed him as a Tyron-like player) is, sources tell us, trying to work his way out of Houston.

So if Dallas calls the Ravens and the Bengals and offers Tyron for a first ... and the Texans do the same offering Tunsil ... Dallas gets rejected.

Soon, with the NFL business year beginning in March, the Cowboys - and Smith - might have some decisions to make. But we will say this: It is difficult to envision the struggling Dallas offensive line suddenly become better by subtracting Tyson Smith.