5 teams who could trade for Lions QB Matthew Stafford in the offseason

The Cowboys refused to pony up and pay Dak Prescott last offseason, and his refusal to budge looked a little worse when he suffered a season-ending leg injury in Week 5. Then his value went up, as Dallas has moved from Andy Dalton to Ben DiNucci to Garrett Gilbert under center. Still, it seems unlikely the Cowboys will franchise tag Prescott again next year and commit $37.68 million to him coming off a major injury.

Jerry and Stephen Jones are offering all the expected Prescott puffery, professing a bright future with him as the quarterback and dismissing the idea the Cowboys would consider taking a quarterback early in next April’s draft. But regardless of their words, they’d be falling short if they didn’t consider other quarterback options.

There were no concrete reports, but after Prescott’s injury, the idea of the Cowboys trading for Stafford was out there a bit in the internet mill. The same thing that kept the Lions from trading him last offseason still existed (pre-trade deadline, of course) — a $32 million dead money hit.

But that dead money hit goes down and merges with some cleared cap space for the Lions next March. The Cowboys would have to do a little cap maneuvering to get it done, while also giving up the ghost on keeping Prescott. But a trade for Stafford might be in play during the offseason.