Grading a Packers-Cowboys trade that wildly changes both WR rooms

The Dallas Cowboys need to figure out what the hell they are doing pronto. For some strange reason, owner Jerry Jones isn't paying his veteran stars soon enough on new contracts. He has players like CeeDee Lamb, Zack Martin and Dak Prescott playing on expiring deals. Martin may retire after next season, while Lamb and Prescott could haul in a combined $100 million in the first year of their deals.

So what is a poor franchise like the Cowboys to do? Well, if they want to stop robbing Peter to pay Paul, they may want to cut ties with a player like Lamb who they will have to pay a gross premium for. He is not the receiver of Justin Jefferson, but he could be slated to pull in more than $35 million on his new contract. Dallas might be overpaying some $10 million annually to retain Lamb's services.

Fortunately, we have a trade proposal from Brad Gagnon over at Bleacher Report to take us home.

Gagnon says that either Romeo Doubs or Christian Watson, plus Jayden Reed and a second-round pick in 2025 could be enough to get the Cowboys to agree to a trade with the Packers. Again, the fact that we would be trading Lamb during his fifth-year option season makes it very difficult to make the dollars and cents make sense. What we have to ask ourselves is if this is a fair trade or not for both.

I appreciate Gagnon for trying to make something happen, whereas the Cowboys are fat-catting it...

How Green Bay Packers can trade for Dallas Cowboys WR CeeDee Lamb

If we made this trade and the Green Bay Packers only want one year of service out of Lamb, the Cowboys should agree to this deal immediately. This is because they would be netting some $6.5 million in additional assets in moving from Lamb's expiring contract. In this situation, the Cowboys could conceivably try to re-sign Lamb as a free agent to a second contract, if they felt so inclined.

Now let's assume that Packers use the franchise tag on Lamb to get an additional year out of him. His salary would go from something like $3.5 million for 2024 to around $28.8 million for 2025. If that were to be the case, wouldn't the Cowboys ask for even more? Then again, they would have no way in knowing what the Packers want to do with Lamb long-term. It is why this deal is so very complicated.

Overall, I think this deal is fair for both parties. Green Bay gets a star wide receiver and Dallas gets to reload a bit. The second-round pick in 2025, as well as Reed and either Doubs or Watson coming over completely reshapes their receiving corps. Dallas needs to get less expensive, and this is a great way to do so. However, until we know what type of deal Lamb could get, it is hard to pull the trigger.

With so much unknown regarding Lamb's future deal, I think this proposal actually kind of works.

Grade: B+