As training camp draws near, teams around the NFL will begin to shave fat off their salary caps. Every year big name players find themselves surprisingly looking for a new locker room to call home. A look back just to 2018 provide examples of the head-scratching moves teams will often make. The Arizona Cardinals cut Tyrann Mathieu. The Dallas Cowboys cut all-time leading scorer, Dan Bailey.

The Oakland Raiders traded Khalil Mack to the Chicago Bears and so on and so forth. Teams either don’t see a fit with a certain player, the player has become less valuable than his contract dictates, or there’s a replacement ready to go. The worst-case scenario for a player is that all three happen at once, normally a death sentence to one’s tenure. That’s exactly what has happened to two-time Pro Bowler Kyle Rudolph of the Minnesota Vikings, and the Cowboys could be the benefactors.

Rudolph is scheduled to make $7.625 million in 2019, the final year of five-year, $36.5 million contract extension signed in 2014.

Rudolph’s contract carries no dead money if released, with no guaranteed amount and no more prorated bonus allocation remaining. That’s a bad place to be in as a player, and just this week head coach Mike Zimmer acknowledged Rudolph might be on the outside looking in, “Sometimes business gets in the way.”

The Vikings just drafted Alabama TE Irv Smith Jr. with their second-round pick in the 2019 draft, No. 50 overall. Replacement in hand. Ready for the trifecta? The Vikings hired Kevin Stafanski as their full-time offensive coordinator for 2019, and he likes to air it out. After spending 14 seasons serving in various coaching roles with the Vikings, Stefanski finally got his shot as interim offensive coordinator in 2018, and he emptied the clip. Couple along new quarterback Kirk Cousins, Stefanski took the Vikings to the air. Both Adam Theilen and Stefon Diggs had over 100 catches and 1,000 yards.

With Smith, the Vikings now have a younger, cheaper, faster version of Rudolph to send deep. Rudolph, for all his pass-catching prowess, does his best work close to the line of scrimmage, and in the red zone. You know who needs help in the red zone? The Dallas Cowboys, that’s who.

The Cowboys finished 26th in red zone efficiency in 2018, part of what cost Scott Linehan his offensive coordinator’s job. Linehan’s inability to effectively utilize the NFL’s premier rushing talent Ezekiel Elliott, paired with one of its best offensive lines and an additional rushing threat at QB in Dak Prescott was dumbfounding. In 2019, Kellen Moore will get his chance at cracking the code, and he’ll have new tools to do it with. The Cowboys have brought back veteran TE Jason Witten, and drafted multidimensional running back Tony Pollard to help provide even more depth at variance at their skill positions.

With Witten slated to play a conservative number of snaps, Blake Jarwin and Dalton Schultz still developing, does it make sense to bring Rudolph in for a one or two year stint alongside his fellow No. 82?

If the Vikings give Rudolph the pink slip, it makes all the sense in the world for the Cowboys to kick the tires and see if the man who’s caught 41 career touchdowns has any tread left. The Cowboys are well known for their penchant for signing older players at reduced rates, hoping to squeeze out the last few drops of juice.

Rudolph won’t sell himself short. He’s a pillar of the community in Minnesota, where he was the Vikings’ Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year nominee in 2018. He’s got a growing family, and only so many years left to get to the ultimate prize, a Super Bowl ring. If Rudolph believes that Dallas is the place he can win a championship, and the Cowboys believe he can provide a spark in the red zone, there could be a deal to be made.

Rudolph went to college at Notre Dame, where lined up alongside then-left tackle Zack Martin for one season in Martin’s red-shirt freshman year, 2010. The Cowboys have another golden-domer on the roster as well, Jaylon Smith, and there’s some fun symmetry here. Smith and Martin played in one season together at Notre Dame as well; Smith’s true freshman year, Martin’s red-shirt senior year, 2013.

You can follow Burke at @BurkeDowner.