Dak, We Hardly Knew Ye

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Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (4) celebrates after an NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Nov. 13, 2016. The Cowboys won 35-30. (AP Photo/Don Wright)

Holy cow, Jerry has done it again. BREAKING: ScoreBoardTX has learned that the Cowboys have agreed in principle to a trade that will send quarterback Dak Prescott  and Dallas’ first round pick to the Cleveland Browns in exchange for the number one overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, as well as the 12th overall pick.

Amazing. No wonder the Cowboys held on to Tony Romo and did not trade nor release him. It’s clear that the organization still feels Tony has one more run in him, but this is a definite roll of the dice.

“Presently, we feel like we have a good shot as contenders for the Super Bowl this year,” Jerry told us, late Friday evening. “Dak is a wonderful player, but the fact is we were able to parlay a fourth round pick into the number one overall pick in the draft. Those opportunities do not come around often. And we firmly believe in Tony Romo. It’s about time he got back on the field and do so as a Dallas Cowboy.”

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Pundits will certainly be expressing their opinions, en masse, on this one. It does not come without controversy. But what if it works out?

You need look no further than Cleveland’s history at quarterback to know why they made the move. Bernie Kosar was literally the last player worth a damn to line up under center for the Browns, and he won a Super Bowl in Dallas after that. Dak fills a need there and fills it well.

Around these parts, the Cowboys are in need of pass rushers, and they will land one in Myles Garrett with that number one pick. He’s one of the best prospects to ever come out of Texas A&M and also an Arlington native. Gaining the 12th overall pick is key as well since Clemson’s DeShaun Watson now becomes a prime target for the Cowboys.

Privately, this move was pushed for by Jason Garrett, who remains close to Romo and feels that perhaps this team may have been able to go deeper in last year’s playoffs had he been on the field.

Relying on Romo and possibly mortgaging your quarterback future by trading Dak away? It is definitely a concern. But would you expect anything less from Jerry?

Instead of focusing on the negative, let’s take a look at the possibilities for the Cowboys with this move and how we got here.

Leveraging Denver and Houston’s desire for Romo against one another allowed Jones and his staff to analyze what they really wanted in a trade for No. 9. The salary cap certainly was part of the equation, and in the end they can have a productive player earning a high salary on the field rather than dead money on the books.

Forgetting, of course, that Romo has not played but one series over the last 18 months, and only four games in two years. He has that will to fight, however, and his leadership skills are excellent. Oh, and there’s this – it has leaked that Jerry and Stephen Jones were spotted having dinner with free agent Johnny Manziel at Bob’s Steak & Chop House last week, and now we know why.

“Of course we wish that we could have found a way to simply groom Dak while Tony finished out his career,” Jones said. “But you have to take risks in this league, and I think we’ve made a bold choice here.”

Oh, yes, Jerry. Bold, indeed.

Limiting the quarterback choices on the Cowboys’ roster to an aging and fragile player, while talented, is borderline lunacy. Trade a young talent like Dak Prescott away? Unbelievable.

So much so, that perhaps it is. But you can figure that out by simply taking the first letter of each paragraph in this column and finding some reality.