DALLAS — The Dallas Cowboys made headlines and did absolutely nothing to earn them, which means it must be the NFL offseason.
On Thursday, a report surfaced from ESPN's Adam Schefter that Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson doesn't want to leave the team that picked him in Round 3 of the 2012 NFL draft, but if he did, the Cowboys would be one of his preferred teams.
That's like saying you intend to stay with your spouse, but are still saving favorite profiles on a dating app.
Nevertheless, the Cowboys find themselves in the middle of a controversy they didn't ask for, and some fans like the idea of adding a Super Bowl-winning quarterback to the roster. After all, Brad Johnson really elevated the team from 2007-08 with his Super Bowl ring. Drew Bledsoe, too, in the two years prior to that.
To be fair, if the Cowboys were to acquire Wilson, they would be getting a top-10 quarterback while still in his prime; Bledsoe and Johnson were well past their glory years by the time they suited up in Dallas. Wilson has been the driving force behind any success the Seahawks have had since the Legion of Boom starting fragmenting in 2015.
Wilson's gripe with the Seahawks is he doesn't feel they have surrounded him with adequate talent, and he has taken a beating behind their offensive line. Some Cowboys fans' gripe with Dak Prescott, who will technically be a free agent on March 17 unless Dallas franchise-tags him again, is that he can't get out of the divisional round of the playoffs with a loaded roster.
What if you took the quarterback with no weapons and put him on the team that just needed a quarterback? It would be a match made in Heaven — or the trophy presentation stage at the Super Bowl. Whichever you prefer.
Cowboys owner, president, and general manager Jerry Jones knows what Wilson can do with his team having faced the 5-11, 215-pound field general seven times since 2012.
"He's just always been unique in his ability to get the job done, and that almost sounds like a blue collar worker, but it's far from that," Jones told 105.3 "The Fan" [KRLD-FM] on Sept. 25, 2020.
"He's got unique ways to frustrate defenses. He's extremely, extremely hard to defend, especially in the passing game because he's got mobility and he's got the ability to not only really thrive in, I would say, a run-option type attack, whatever it may need be that day. But he's also got an uncanny ability to really be accurate with his long throws, thereby creating all the pressure in the world that a quarterback can give a defense."
Imagine that "uncanny ability" paired up with the receiving trio of Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup, and CeeDee Lamb and Tyron Smith and La'el Collins as his tackles.
The problem for any team with aspirations for acquiring Wilson is the price that it would take to get him. A trade package postulated by Pro Football Focus featured a former 3rd overall selection and additional premium draft capital.
Dallas would have to part with a Pro Bowl caliber player and their next three first-round picks. Essentially Wilson would be bringing the same problem of not having enough talent around him to Dallas, where they wouldn't be able to surround him with talent due to his contract and the dearth of top-50 selections for the next three drafts.
Keep in mind, this is also the same franchise that has a starting quarterback and made him play under the franchise tag in 2020. Wouldn't it be easier to keep Prescott and just use those picks to build around him?
Don't forget, just because a player wants to play for the Cowboys, it doesn't mean that he will end up in Dallas. Wilson should know how that worked out for his former teammate, Earl Thomas.
Would you like to see the Cowboys acquire Russell Wilson and let Dak Prescott walk? Share your thoughts with Mark on Twitter @therealmarklane.
