Denver Broncos trade options with the Dallas Cowboys

3. Cowboys decide to salary dump/trade Jaylon Smith

Let’s go back to the linebacker position for just a moment.

The Dallas Cowboys are probably hoping that Jaylon Smith can prove himself worthy of being the Batman to Micah Parsons’ Robin in 2021.

Smith has been productive since 2017, racking up nearly 500 tackles in his first four NFL seasons. The Cowboys gave Smith a second contract, one he’s smack in the middle of right now, and there’s a chance they may want to get out of that contract.

Smith is under contract through the end of the 2025 season. He’s currently just 26 years old, and if the Cowboys were to trade him today, they would take on a dead cap charge of $2.6 million in 2021 with cap savings of $7.2 million.

Why would the Cowboys trade Smith only to potentially lose Leighton Vander Esch next offseason as well?

In addition to bringing in Micah Parsons via the 2021 NFL Draft, the Cowboys also added a player who was on the “my guys” list of many Denver Broncos fans — LSU linebacker Jabril Cox. They also brought in free agent safety Keanu Neal (who is familiar with Dan Quinn’s defense from their time in Atlanta) and converted him to linebacker.

The Cowboys have an over-abundance at linebacker and they’re not in great shape with the salary cap. Trading Smith could be a necessary evil for them in the 2021 offseason and it would be a relatively risk-free move for the Denver Broncos, who have two starting linebackers hitting free agency in 2022 at this point in time, just to reiterate that.

I think the Jaylon Smith scenario is far less likely than a potential Leighton Vander Esch scenario, but Smith’s name has popped up in some rumors over the course of the 2021 offseason.