Trade Taco Charlton

Charlton’s second season was a dud thanks in part to a shoulder injury which required January surgery for a labrum issue. While it’s far too early to close the book and consider Charlton a bust, that doesn’t necessarily mean the Cowboys must continue to be his employer.

Dallas has refused to move Charlton inside to the 3T position, where we’ve been thinking he should be spending the majority of his time. Everything about his athletic makeup screams he should be moved. Maybe the bad shoulder prevented that from happening in 2018, the same way Lawrence’s bad shoulder is a huge reason why he’s only been a left defensive end the last two years.

But if the Cowboys don’t have those same thoughts, and he’s playing behind Tank Lawrence and Robert Quinn for the season, plus Kerry Hyder, Dorance Armstrong and possibly Randy Gregory (who it certainly feels like the team believes will be reinstated this year), why not explore a trade that could be a big gain?

Trade for Gerald McCoy

Like Peterson, McCoy was a no-show for Tampa Bay’s voluntary workouts and he’s been involved in trade rumors for a while. McCoy hasn’t been the force on the interior he once was, but he’s still way ahead of what Dallas currently has. In their win-now mentality, he’d probably be better than what they could get if they didn’t go DT in the second and waited until the third.

McCoy is due $13 million this year and $25 million over the next two seasons, which likely means he’d be available for a late pick just to get him off the books for the Bucs.

Draft Jachai Polite, Montez Sweat or Jeffrey Simmons

Could the Cowboys draft one of the flagged defensive linemen who have first-round talent?

LSU’s Polite basically failed everything about the pre-draft experience from putting on bad weight to reportedly having hideous combine interviews. His workouts betrayed his film, but his film shows a player who could be a bookend to Lawrence for years.

Mississippi State’s Sweat set the combine record for 40-yard dash time by a defensive end at 4.41. He also had a heart condition show up during his medicals that could cause teams to drop him, or remove him from their draft boards. Mo Hurst dropped from a first-round grade to a fifth-round pick with his heart condition in 2018.

Sweat’s teammate at MSU was Jeffrey Simmons. Simmons tore his ACL in February and will miss the season. He was seen as the third-best DT in the draft behind Quinnen Williams and Ed Oliver. He could suffer a similar situation to the Cowboys’ Jaylon Smith, dropping a round (or more) in the draft because he has to redshirt his rookie season.

Any of these three players could help Dallas, and in their bargain shopping ways could be very intriguing.