Earlier today I saw a tweet on my timeline that San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel requested a trade. My first thought as a Cowboys fan was “the Joneses would never be interested in paying a receiver $25M per year, much less give up draft capital to do it”. If I had to guess, that was what many of you thought too.

This offseason the Cowboys traded WR Amari Cooper to the Cleveland Browns for a 5th round pick. Not ideal. Cooper was due $20M this season and the team wasn’t interested in paying him that kind of money. This one move probably led many of you to think the same thing I did. The Cowboys would NEVER trade for Deebo Samuel.

And you’re probably right…

Unless.

The more and more I think about it, the two situations are not all that related.

They didn’t believe Amari was worth the money he was due, and decided it was best to move on from the contract. The team didn’t cut Amari because they don’t like paying players, or are so desperate for cash that they had to make the move. The Cowboys didn’t want to be paying a receiver top 5 money for top 20 production and thought that moving on was the best choice.

The cap hit just didn’t match the production.

The sentiment that “the Cowboys don’t like paying players” is certainly not true. They gave Cooper a $100M deal, Dak Prescott is a top paid quarterback, Ezekiel Elliott is the highest paid running back in the league, the team attempted to pay Randy Gregory $70M and gave WR Michael Gallup $12.5M per year.

Deebo Samuel on the other hand, has top 5 production at both receiver and running back. Samuel would likely demand around $25M per year if the team were to trade for him. It would be “do-able” and something the Cowboys front office should certainly take a look at.

Regardless if the Cowboys actually attempt to trade for him. It shouldn’t be viewed as a negative on the Dallas front office.

The two situations are different.

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