Dallas Cowboys Make Trade Decision on Michael Gallup

Transcript

00:00 In the end, this is probably going to end up looking more like a goodwill gesture than it is a trade transaction.

00:08 Mike Fisher back in Frisco reporting from the hometown of your Dallas Cowboys.

00:14 Cowboys have given Michael Gallup, the good soldier, wide receiver, permission to seek his own trade.

00:21 That is a headline grabber, obviously.

00:23 Michael Gallup is a headline-worthy guy, and it is the Dallas Cowboys.

00:27 But it's not quite what it's cracked up to be.

00:31 If the Cowboys do help or allow Michael Gallup to engineer a trade,

00:38 the salary cap savings that they get in exchange for it are virtually nothing.

00:44 Pennies on the dollar, you might say.

00:47 As opposed to if they do a post-June 1 release of Michael Gallup,

00:53 in which case they get millions of dollars back in salary cap relief.

00:57 Now, in that event, they don't get that relief, they don't get that room until after June 1.

01:03 So that's not ideal, but there is business to be done after June 1.

01:08 For instance, first of all, there's more free agents that could be signed on Tier 3.

01:11 There's also the rookie draft pool that could be handled in theory at that time.

01:17 So $8 million or so of room would be helpful in excess of $8 million,

01:23 as opposed to what I believe is less than $1 million in savings if you make a trade.

01:30 Then there's the issue regarding a trade of who wants to give up something for Michael Gallup

01:35 and take on his existing $13 million salary.

01:39 Obviously, the Cowboys gambled on Michael Gallup as he went through the knee rehab,

01:44 gambled and lost on the long-term multi-year deal at $13 million a year.

01:49 And so they're going to try to erase some of that gamble and some of that loss moving forward.

01:55 But even though ESPN is telling us the Carolina Panthers might be interested,

01:59 I bet you that comes from an agent telling ESPN,

02:03 "Would you please write that somebody's interested, please, please, please?"

02:07 The likelihood that somebody's going to give up a draft pick to take on Michael Gallup and his salary,

02:14 that would be a numbskull move, frankly, on the part of some other team.

02:18 Michael Gallup, by the way, it should be noted, could end up back in Dallas in theory.

02:22 They like the guy.

02:24 And if he wasn't being asked to be a $13 million player, maybe none of this would be much of an issue at all.

02:32 But Michael Gallup is almost certain to be released, probably as a June 1st designation.

02:40 And then he can go find himself a new team at that time as a street-free agent,

02:48 far more likely than the Cowboys getting something in trade.

02:52 Monday is the official opening of what the NFL has decided to officially call the legal tampering period.

03:03 The Cowboys are under the cap, and we'll see what kind of moves, if any, they actually make in terms of Tier 1 stuff.

03:10 We'll keep you posted on all that, of course, here on the Fish Report and at CowboysSI.com.

03:15 In Frisco with the Cowboys. Fish out.