Cowboys Idea: Dump WR Amari Cooper and Add WR Dez Bryant?

Here's A Wild Dallas Cowboys Idea: Dump WR Amari Cooper and Add WR Dez Bryant. But Does One Thing Really Have Anything to Do With The Other?

FRISCO - So here's a wild Dallas Cowboys NFL free-agency idea: How about if they dump receiver Amari Cooper and replace him with Dez Bryant?

Let's assemble the pieces of this theoretical puzzle ...

*Dez Bryant wishes to come out of mothballs and return to the Cowboys. He told me this first back during the NFL Conference Championship Weekend, has made it clear everywhere by now, and as you can see in the above video, continues to work toward that dream.

*The Jones family certainly hasn't shut down the idea, having exchanged texts with Dez, ultimately placing Bryant into Jerry Jones' imaginative "shower.''

*The Cowboys, according to CowboysSI.com reporting, are somewhere between "second-guessing'' their commitment to Amari Cooper and "double-checking'' their investment in the idea that the perennial Pro Bowler is so irreplaceable that he should be paid, via free agency, like a top-five NFL receiver.

*The CBA crunch and all sides' unwillingness to do deals earlier means Cooper is about to be a free agent (unless there is a way to tag him). and QB Dak Prescott is going to be a free agent (unless he's tagged) ... and there is likely no way to tag both. If Dak is unsigned by next week's deadline while a CBA is approved, he gets the tag - and Cooper, unless he's signed, walks.

*Will it be a $20 million deficit if Cooper leaves? Or a $20 million gain? Can't Dallas plug two holes with the leftover money? Or use it to keep cornerback Byron Jones (likely too pricy for Dallas right now) or defensive end Robert Quinn (who tells me he'd like to return), who might be about to surprise the Cowboys with how much others bid?

*What about "Draft, Draft, Draft''? Sure, Dallas can bid farewell to Amari and draft, say, Alabama receiver Henry Ruggs at No. 17 ... but what does that do to the buzz we know surrounds a Dallas connection to Florida cornerback C.J. Henderson at 17?

Enter ... Dez Bryant. Or, rather, enter my NFL Network buddy Mike Garafolo, who was the first to make a direct connection between the departure of Cooper and the re-arrival of Bryant. 

In talking with Garafolo, he reminds me that he cooked up the concept as a product of a "Suggestion Segment'' for maybe-moves in the NFC East. So an Amari-for-Dez swapped out isn't a "sourced'' idea in the strictest sense. And indeed, Bryant tells me as of Wednesday night that the Cowboys have yet to show true interest in him in the form of a workout.

My "Suggestion Segment'' concept? The possibility of Dallas passing on a financially-bloated contract for Cooper is real (maybe in the form of Dallas signing Dak and then one-year-tagging Amari). And the possibility of Dallas reuniting with Dez on the cheap is on the radar, something no one thought imaginable.

But a direct tie between the two transactions? No. Bryant has explained to me often that he feels best-suited for a complimentary role, and specifically says he envisions an offense in which he is a backup and a helper to a lineup featuring the existing standouts ... and Amari.

Said Dez: "“Let me play with Zeke (Ezekiel Elliott), (Tony) Pollard, (Michael) Gallup, (Amari) Cooper, (Randall) Cobb, (Blake) Jarwin ...

“Think about it.”

"Dez,'' I asked, "are you serious?''

“I’m where I need to be (physically) right now,” Bryant said. “I’m more serious than ever.”

So it says here Amari might go. And Dez might come. But the two moves won't be knotted together ... if either of them happens at all.