Trade gossip, 'Supermen' and 'The Pie': What the Cowboys think of Jags DB Jalen Ramsey

FRISCO - There are few NFL things sexier than trade gossip. Jalen Ramsey to the Dallas Cowboys? It doesn't get steamier than that! But before we get too "our ahead of our skis,'' as Jerry Jones likes to say, what do the two parties actually think of one another?

Before the 2016 NFL Draft, star defensive back Ramsey was on Dallas' board with "tags touching'' alongside Ezekiel Elliott. That is to say, their grades were pretty much exactly the same. In the end, even the defensive coaches here inside The Star supported the selection of Ohio State running back Zeke over Florida State product Ramsey.

Elliott came to Dallas as the fourth overall pick, Ramsey went to Jacksonville at Pick No. 5.

Before that draft, Ramsey declared that he wanted to be a Cowboy, that he wanted join his favorite team. Later, though, having been "spurned'' by Dallas, he declared, "I will never play for (the Cowboys) unless the Joneses leave."

Shortly after that remark -- one of the many colorfully foolish things Jalen has said in his brief-but-brilliant career -- his Jags came to AT&T Stadium fresh off having made the AFC Championship Game. The Joneses' team dismantled the "hot'' Jags, 40-7 ... and Jacksonville has never quite been the same since.

The decline has been so steep that Ramsey, the Jags' self-proclaimed leader, now wants out. And naturally, because it's the stuff of click-baiting, the internet is loaded with Ramsey-to-Dallas talk.

In addition to Ramsey's "never play for the Joneses'' remark (which surely doesn't matter to Jerry and in the end probably doesn't really matter to Jalen), there are the realities of team-building in Dallas to be dealt with in any serious conversation about the matter.

The Cowboys showed only a passing interest in Miami's "get-me-out-of-here'' DB Minkah Fitzpatrick, refusing to enter a bidding war when the price was established to be a first-round pick. (The Steelers won that war.)

What does Dallas plan to do here? "Plan'' is the word.

That "pie'' that Jerry talks of regarding salary-cap distribution? It's baked. And the knife is plunged.

Ramsey is set for a new contract after 2020, and he's on a track to "set the bar'' at cornerback. As it is, his fifth-year option in 2020 will cost his employer $13 million. While the Cowboys on paper have, for instance, $90 million in cap room -- seemingly enough to do anything they wish! -- their wishes are already mapped out.

And their wishes do not include paying Jalen Ramsey $13 mil next year ... and then watching as he demands the richest deal for a defensive back in NFL history after that.

Jerry Jones alluded to the plan on Tuesday on 105.3 The Fan, saying that there is no trade-available player who can turn around a franchise's fortunes like Charles Haley and Deion Sanders did when he acquired them in the Super Bowl-rich early 1990's.

“If Charles Haley were out there or Deion Sanders, I did, and I would do it again,'' Jones said. "I went after those guys. If someone that would make that much difference (was available) - those guys are Supermen - then I would be after them.”

It's probably important to add that there are such players out there ... but that the Cowboys have budgeted for others.

Like Dak Prescott. And Amari Cooper. And, if cornerback Byron Jones -- who I've long listed as the standout Cowboy who might get squeezed -- will lean a bit "team-friendly,'' yeah, him, too.

Do the Cowboys "need'' a corner? Every team "needs'' a Ramsey (if you can get beyond the knucklehead factor, the bragging problem, the "I-don't-want-to-play-zone'' obstacle and the quitting-on-his-team problem).

And ... does there need to be some plan "flexibility''? Absolutely, which is how La'el Collins' new deal is on the books.

But consider the viability of the plan: The Cowboys' Chidobe Awuzie is at the moment playing like the budding star Dallas thought he could be when he was a second-round pick in 2017. And Jones is already a Pro Bowler. "Need'' here is a relative thing, especially with Anthony Brown here (albeit in his final contractual year), especially with Jourdan Lewis here.

The Cowboys have their pie and their have their plan for how to dole it out. Jalen Ramsey is going to have to take his empty plate somewhere else.