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Cowboys Get: WR Davante Adams
Raiders Get: Conditional 2025 second-round pick, QB Trey Lance
If the Dallas Cowboys aren’t desperate to improve their roster, they should be. Dallas’ defense hasn’t been as good under Mike Zimmer as it was under Dan Quinn, and it is dealing with injuries to both DeMarcus Lawrence and Micah Parsons.
Dallas may have to win with its offense for the foreseeable future. That may be a problem because the team lacks reliable receiver depth behind CeeDee Lamb and has one of the worst rushing attacks in the NFL.
Trading for Adams would give Dak Prescott a top-tier perimeter receiver opposite Lamb and would reunite Adams with head coach Mike McCarthy.
McCarthy, who is entering the final year of his contract, should be pounding the table for Adams, if only for the impact it might have on his job security. He was the Green Bay Packers head coach during Adams’ first five seasons, and his offense helped the receiver blossom into a star.
In this hypothetical scenario, the threshold for flipping a conditional second-round pick into a first might be high. Dallas has shown that it can get to the playoffs. Winning multiple postseason games is now the goal—making an appearance in the NFC title game a sensible condition for the first-round pivot.
To sweeten the deal, Dallas could include third-string quarterback Trey Lance.
The Raiders are still searching for their next quarterback of the future. While Lance’s tenure in the NFL suggests that he wouldn’t be the answer, Las Vegas could at least get him into the building and kick the tires on the 2021 first-round pick before he enters 2025 free agency.