Would The Cowboys Rather Trade for Lions CB Darius Slay Than Re-Sign Byron Jones?
FRISCO - It's a strange fact of human nature that many of us think we'd rather possess somebody else's shiny new toy rather than simply retain the perfectly good toy that's already ours.
So it is, it seems, with Dallas Cowboys Nation and Byron Jones ... and for that matter, with the Detroit Lions and Darius Slay.
Both Jones and Slay are top-notch cornerbacks, are in the news and are available, though their availability is via different categories. Jones is a free agent and what we might term a "second-tier'' star who Dallas would like to keep - but at far less than the top-dollar rate for corners, which is at about $15 million APY. Slay, meanwhile, was on the Lions' trade block and is again now, in large part because while he makes an affordable $10 million now, he's up for an extension - and the team that trades for him will be nudged to give him one.
“Of course I want an extension," Slay said at the Super Bowl, "but how that turns out, we’ll see.”
Slay is 29 and a three-time Pro Bowler. Jones is 27, has made the Pro Bowl once, and has but one flaw: He lacks the numbers that demonstrate he's a ball-hawk, something Slay - nicknamed "Big Play'' - can boast of as he had an eight-interception season a couple of years ago.
Jones also gets credit for the class with which he conducts himself. People in Detroit, meanwhile, would characterize Slay as "outspoken,'' as evidenced recently when he tweeted a response to a list of highly-paid cornerbacks (Xavien Howard at $15.1 million per year, Josh Norman (recently released by Washington) at $15 mil, Trumaine Johnson at $14.2 mil and Xavier Rhodes at $14 mil that read, “Y’all number to low lol.”
Back when Jalen Ramsey - arguably the NFL's best corner - was on the Jacksonville trade block, eventually going to the Rams, Dallas staffers had an in-house conversation about how Ramsey would be the rare talent acquisition to cause the Cowboys to re-think their meticulously-drawn salary-cap plan. They are not planning on doing so for Jones, and they are therefore unlikely to do it for Slay, especially if they agree with the thoughts of ProFootballFocus.com.
PFF on Slay: Slay has widely been considered one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL over the past five or so years, and he has been exactly that. This season, though, he took a step back with a 56.9 overall grade, and he is set to enter free agency in 2021.
PFF on Jones: Jones is a top-10 cornerback in PFF coverage grade over the last two seasons among qualifiers. ... An impact player at (an) impact position, and though the Cowboys will be strapped for cap space, they need to make every effort to keep all three (Dak Prescott, Amari Cooper and Jones).
In the end, the double-price tag on Slay (presumably a premium draft pick plus the new set-the-market contract) closes whatever gap one thinks exists between him and Jones. The Cowboys, we bet, don't want to pay either of them $15 million APY - which is why we've so often written of Jones as "the star about to get squeezed'' - but the Cowboys also don't want to get fooled into valuing a "new toy'' over an existing one.
