The Dallas Cowboys aren’t having a fire sale, but they are letting it be known several of their highly-paid veterans could be acquired via trade. With the new league year rapidly approaching, Dallas has to get under the salary cap. They’ve essentially done that by restructuring the contracts of QB Dak Prescott and RG Zack Martin, but they have a little ways to go still. In addition, they clearly will need to shed more salary if they want to be a part, in any substantial way, of free agency.
Several options are on the table, and on Thursday it was revealed that trading La’el Collins is one they are considering. If he is on the market, who would be interested? Probably quite a few teams. He’ll be just 29 next season (plenty of OL tread left) and has played at an incredibly high level before, even if that’s not been the case the last two seasons. Here’s a look at the salary angle as well as a handful of potential destinations and why.
Collins salary
Aside from playing at a Pro Bowl level previously, the most appealing aspect of Collins is his salary. He’ll be paid an even $10 million a year for this and the next three years. That’s really cheap for a top right tackle in today’s game.
Dallas would eat all of the cap hit from his signing and restructure bonuses, leaving just the base salary for one of the game’s best run blockers. This low salary will actually help Dallas acquire a better pick for him in a trade.
To be clear, trading Collins now wouldn’t give Dallas a lot of extra room. His base salary is $10 million but the unamortized amounts of his signing bonus which sit on the 2023 and 2024 caps currently total $8.7 million. There’d only be a net gain of $1.3 million this year, but he wouldn’t be on their cap in 2023, saving over $15 million. As discussed in this piece, it certainly feels like Dallas is hitting reset and looking towards having room next season.
Trading Collins after the draft and after June 1 would give Dallas that additional $8.7 million in space now and put $8.7 million of dead money on the 2023 cap. Of course unused, that space rolls over so regardless of when the trade happens, it essentially works out the same for Dallas.
The Steelers are in a rebuild, with no starting quarterback after the retirement of Ben Roethlisberger. If they draft a quarterback or sign one in free agency, protecting the edge is a must. Chukwuma Okorafor has started every game since Week 2 of 2020 but has not played very well at all. He’s a free agent, too, so they could be in the perfect position to make a trade for Dallas.
Pick No. 84 in April’s draft seems like fair compensation from the Steel City.
The Titans were the No. 1 seed in the AFC but were bounced in the divisional round after a bye week. Left tackle Taylor Lewan played just five games and right tackle David Quessenberry was a reserve player who ended up starting the last two years. He played way above expectation in the run game but leaves something to be desired in pass protection. He’s a free agent and Tennessee could certainly use the upgrade.
Pick No. 90 might do it, but if they threw in their comp fourth in exchange for the Cowboys’ fifth rounder then things seem like a great match.
No brainer. The Bengals could use help anywhere on the offensive line as their only job is to protect Joe Burrow better than they did last season. Riley Reiff was a rental who didn’t work out in moving from left to right and Collins would give them a player who they could work with.
Cincy hired Derek Frazier as their new OL coach and he could get a chance to mold the line in his image. The Super Bowl runner up likely won’t get a chance to draft an immediate starter at the position and giving up a third rounder for $10 million would allow them a chance to find other fixes in free agency.
No. 95 isn’t ideal, but there could be a package centered around it that makes sense.
Jawann Taylor is entering the final season of his rookie deal out of Florida and hasn’t done much to establish a reputation as a top guy around the league. Jacksonville will desperately want to improve the protection for Trevor Lawrence and Collins can do that as well as upgrade the run blocking which should take pressure off the second-year quarterback as well.
It feels doubtful the Jags would give up Pick No. 65, but perhaps if they gave up No. 105 and a player (Taylor?) things would make sense for the Cowboys if they were getting third-round offers from other teams.
Denver Broncos
Perhaps my favorite fit, after acquiring Russell Wilson via trade earlier in the week, John Elway and company are clearly in the mindset of pulling off a Rams. There’s no way they’ll subject Wilson to a lot of backfield clutter, so upgrading their RT is a must. Bobby Massie is going to be 33 next season and was a one-year rental who played adequately. Collins is an upgrade there, no question.
Denver gave up a lot, but got a lot from the Rams for Von Miller so even if they give up No. 96, they do still have a second and early third in their arsenal to be able to add something to sweeten the pot for Dallas.
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