With the NFL draft now just one day away, it’s probably a good idea to look at things from another perspective. Last week, 12 trade-back scenarios were laid out in which the Dallas Cowboys vacated the No. 17 overall pick in order to get more bodies into the rotation.
Dallas hasn’t moved off of their first round pick in over eight years though, as our 10 Draft Commandments outlines in Commandment No.3, “Thou shall covet keeping your first rounders.” But what about after that? There’s plenty of reason for Dallas to consider moving up from where they pick next, No. 51. What kind of opportunities could be there?
We polled managing editors of other NFL teams here on the Wire network and eight of them said their teams would heavily consider trading back from their current positions to acquire more picks.
Some of the clubs that responded will likely be out of the Cowboys’ range to trade back into the first round.
Dipping Into 2021’s Stash
The New Orleans Saints (No. 24) and Minnesota Vikings (No. 25) editors all indicated they believe their teams would be willing to move down in the draft and out of the first round.
In order to reach these lofty heights from all the way down at pick No. 51, the Cowboys would have to dip into their 2021 cache of picks to make things happen. Here’s why.
Saints (24) – 740 pts
Vikings (25) – 720 pts
Cowboys (51) – 390 pts
Cowboys (82) – 180 pts
Cowboys (123) – 49 pts
Cowboys 2nd, 3rd, 4th-round picks total – 619 pts
Even if Dallas gave up their next three picks, which they would never do, they’d still not have enough to swing a deal for any of these picks. They’d need to give up a high-value 2021 pick to make this happen.
Future picks are normally regarded as having one-round-less value, so a 2021 first is worth the 16th pick in the 2020 second round, or 420 points.
Here are a couple trade scenarios using these numbers.
Option 1: Cowboys send 2.19 (390) + 3.18 (180) + 2021 2nd (190) to Saints for 1.24 (740) + 5.23 (22.6). 760 points for 762.6 points
Option 2: Cowboys send 2.19 (390) + 2021 1st (420) to Vikings for 1.25 (720) + 3.41 (84) + 6.26 (8.2) . 810 points for 812.2 points
What if the Cowboys weren’t interested in giving up all of this draft capital, would they throw a player into a deal?
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