Cowboys Urged to Trade for Vikings' Dalvin Cook for 2 Late-Round Picks
The Dallas Cowboys offense is entering a new era with head coach Mike McCarthy calling the plays, but could their backfield also be adding a new face?
This is poised to be Tony Pollard’s big season. With veteran Ezekiel Elliott no longer on the roster, Pollard is expected to assert himself as one of the league’s premier lead rushers. However, Bleacher Report thinks the Cowboys might try to trade for Minnesota Vikings star Dalvin Cook.
“[Dallas] franchise-tagged running back Tony Pollard, but he’s coming off of leg surgery. The 5-5, 179-pound rookie, Deuce Vaughn, isn’t physically equipped to handle the workload that Elliott did last season (248 touches),” BR said.
“Cook could be that high-end complement to Pollard that Dallas needs, and with $14.2 million in cap space, the Cowboys could afford to grab him. The question, of course, is whether Minnesota would be willing to trade him inside the conference.”
We're going to counter that argument, though, by explaining a few things that add some depth of knowledge here.
1 - What BR can't know unless they were inside The Star on Thursday for OTAs: There is no "coming off leg surgery'' concern for Pollard. Read more about that here.
2 - BR has no idea what Vaughn is "physically equipped'' to do ... and he's not even Dallas' No. 2 running back right now. Malik Davis was the guy who took second turns behind Pollard at OTAs this week, and Ronald Jones was next up.
3 - Trading "inside the conference'' has very little to do with the real obstacle here.
Which is? CowboysSI.com has already broken the story, via an NFL source, that Dallas is disinclined to trade for Cook "as is'' - meaning the taking on of any sort of big salary is not planned.
Should Cook get cut? Dallas' interest level rises ... but probably not to the point where the Cowboys win a free-agency bidding war for a second expensive running back.
Since entering the NFL in 2017, Cook has made four Pro Bowl teams and is fourth in total rushing yards with 5,993. Last season t the age of 27, Cook showed he still had gas in his tank by recording over 1400 yards from scrimmage and 10 touchdowns.
There’ve been rumors that Minnesota has been looking to move on from the veteran rusher since before this year’s draft so that they could save themselves money, and BR believes it would take a 2024 fourth-round pick and 2025 fifth-round pick for the Vikings to ship him in conference to Dallas.
The Cowboys don't have a problem with giving late-round picks, we're quite sure. And we get the vision: If Cook (obviously superior to the present Dallas backups) is truly on the market, pairing him with Pollard could give the Cowboys one of the most explosive running back tandems in the league next season.
But there is "speculation'' and there is "fact.'' And the "fact'' is, the financial obstacle remains in play.
You can follow Isaiah DeAnda Delgado on Twitter and Instagram @IsaiahDDelgado.
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