Would you trade David Irving for Earl Thomas?

There are a handful of ways that the Cowboys can address their need at safety this offseason.

There’s Derwin James (who they’d have to trade up to get), Kenny Vaccaro (likely the most affordable legit free agent option), Tyrann Mathieu (a pricy free agent option), and Earl Thomas (who they’d have to trade for).

It’s the latter that has been the apple of every Cowboys fan’s eye these last few months. We don’t know exactly how much it would cost to get him, but the apparent price would be high-ish (same for Mathieu).

If Seattle’s asking price is a first round pick, I doubt there’s a single BTBer that makes that trade. I’ve discussed how there are multiple ways to use the second-round pick before, and one of them could be flipping it for Earl Thomas. I’d do that. You might.

A second-round pick is valuable. Nobody denies that. You might believe it’s expendable for someone with Earl’s talents, but you might not want to part with such premium capital. What if you had two second-round picks, though?

The Cowboys placed a second-round tender on David Irving on Wednesday morning. Some people believe a team will bite and that Dallas will turn someone they poached off of a practice squad into a second-round pick. Worse things have definitely been done.

What if the Cowboys use one of their then two second-round picks to acquire Earl Thomas? You’re not losing any draft capital in theory, you’re only losing David Irving, who you’re (in the minds of the Cowboys) theoretically fine with losing anyway.

If you (again, talking about the Cowboys here, but play along if you’d like) don’t feel like David Irving has a long-term future with your team, it makes sense to cash out to whatever degree that you can while you’re still able to. What if you exchange the currency you receive into Earl Thomas?

The question then becomes which you’d prefer:

1. David Irving on a $2.91M deal (or whatever else is potentially agreed to by another team) in 2018 and maybe beyond
2. A second-round pick on top of the one the Cowboys already have (50th overall)
3. Earl Thomas and likely a contract extension that pays him relatively well for the foreseeable future

It really could be as simple as “trading” David Irving for Earl Thomas. Of course, this is the Cowboys, so when is anything ever simple?