The Seahawks made a deal to acquire Carlos Dunlap and will almost certainly have him in uniform in Week 9. However, the pass rush-deficient team looked into another edge defender recently.
Aldon Smith came up in a Seahawks-Cowboys conversation, with Mike Garafolo of NFL.com noting Seattle and other teams checked in on the re-emerging edge rusher’s availability (video link). The Cowboys’ decisions to trade Everson Griffen and cut Dontari Poe and Daryl Worley surely prompted teams to reach out to see if Dallas would be willing to part with its offseason find.
However, the Cowboys are not interested in dealing Smith, Garafolo adds. The Cowboys signed the former All-Pro this offseason, doing so despite Smith being out of football for nearly five years. Smith has been one of the few bright spots on Dallas’ embattled defense, registering a team-high four sacks. Griffen was the only other Cowboy with more than two this season.
Dallas signed Smith to a one-year deal worth $2MM, beating out Denver in the process. Another $2MM is available to Smith through sack incentives. The four sacks are the most the frequently suspended talent has registered in a season since 2013. With the Cowboys not interested in trading Smith, it stands to reason they will explore an extension with the oft-suspended defender.
Although the Seahawks rank slightly ahead of the Cowboys in defensive DVOA (27th to 30th), they have surrendered the most yards by any team through seven games in NFL history. Seattle’s nine sacks rank 27th as well.
Cowboys are terrible, locked against the cap, but won’t trade guys that could help big picture. Wtf?
They have over 20M in cap space
The Cowboys are perfectly fine in cap space.
Like I said, big picture. With a flat cap they have $35M for NEXT year. However, estimated value at $175M next year leaves them closer to $8M. Both without Dak contract if any extensions. They are not in good cap shape in the big picture.
Additionally, all their big deals have large dead money hits so can’t create it that way. They have a cap hit for Jarwin next year over $5M with $3M dead money.
This isn’t baseball. You don’t get rid of your good players for late draft picks. I love Dak but they may have to start looking at drafting another QB. Ehlinger?!!! 40 million to Dak is too much. Can’t buy very many defensive players with that high of a cap hit
No team in the NFL is in great cap space because of the lost revenue this season, so compared to other teams, yes, they are in good cap shape!!
Let me get this straight. You want to trade a good player (an inexpensive one at that) and get a draft pick. 6th round? Likely not better than that for a half season of play. And who in the 6th round is going to have his talent level? If you could get a 3rd round pick, maybe make the deal.
A.S. has strong upside. Does not need to be “developed.” And Dallas should have inside track on signing him in the off-season. I think your thought is that they should sell off and rebuild.
Because half of their starters on both sides of the ball have been hurt?
And apparently (in your view) won’t be back next year?
I think big picture should assume we WON’T be playing with third-stringers all over the field next year.
Maybe you think they should tank, get #1 pick, and get you-know-who so they can dump Dak, who obviously will cost too much….
Yes as they could resign him in the off season and get a pick for him do try and keep up
Zephyr- I’m a Hawks fan, first, condolences for losing Dak. 2nd why John Schneider didnt explore a deal w Aldon Smith in the offseason is beyond me? He looked terrific against Seattle recently. Didnt look much different from the player he was in SF.
3rd- If you consider how much a good edge rusher get paid its hard to see your FO parting with him. Just wanted to say our RB1, our stud RB Chris Carson, we drafted him in the 7th rd, so theres def some value in the late rds so I could see the argument for trading him, if I were a Cowboys fan I’d hope we kept him
They get a 4th round pick for him if someone signs him next year. If they don’t get a 4th or better now, why trade him?