The 'Fun Filler' Of The Kirk Cousins To Cowboys 'Story'
FRISCO (105.3 THE FAN) - Kirk Cousins to the Dallas Cowboys? Even the source of the story knows it's not a story.
Mike Florio at ProFootballTalk.com, in speculating about where the quarterback might land next, included Dallas among the QB-needy teams who might pursue him. In doing so, he asked long-time Cowboys beat writer Charean Williams about the unlikely possibility that Dallas owner Jerry Jones might be interested in such a thing.
"I wouldn't put that past him at all," answered Williams, who was at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for years but now works under Florio.
And suddenly - in part because Charean is a sober and credible journalist - silly speculation from Florio has become a "news story.''
I spoke to Charean this morning, and she confirmed my assumption: She was simply answering a "fun'' question from the boss.
Charean, of course, knows the cap implications alone make the idea a non-starter. Cousins is likely looking at a new $25-mil-a-year contract somewhere; it wouldn't be fiscally smart for Dallas to do that when it already employs Dak Prescott, who in 2018 is scheduled to make $630,000.
In fact, Cousins' single-season salary is almost 10 times greater than Dak's four-year total numbers over the course of his present rookie contract.
Beyond being fiscally unwise (part of Dallas' entire cap plan for the next two seasons centers on Prescott's affordability, leaving the club cap room to build around him), the "rumored'' move would be football-dumb. Prescott dipped in 2017 but nevertheless has on his resume maybe the greatest rookie QB season in NFL history. Jones will charge coach Jason Garrett and staff with getting the most out of Prescott in Year 3, not by clouding the team's psyche by adding a player who would quite possibly be (or at least begin) a $25-million backup distraction.
PFT discussed how "Jerry almost took Johnny Manziel'' and used it as evidence that he "falls in love with quarterbacks.'' But the first claim is mythological and false. And given the fact that Jones has in almost 30 years of running the Cowboys employed just two "star quarterbacks'' in Troy Aikman and Tony Romo, I'd argue that the Cowboys have gotten their hands on too few talented QBs, not too many.
Florio doubled-down on his belief that the Cousins-Cowboys connection "makes sense,'' though, in a Friday appearance on "Shan & RJ'' on 105.3 The Fan in which he noted that Jones is "infatuated with bright and shiny objects'' like Cousins. The reality, though, is that it is the media who is infatuated with such objects — and with the "bright and shiny objects'' that are Cowboys-related website clicks.
Florio at one time copped to this, in a way, by conceding to "Shan & RJ'' what a challenge he finds it to be to fill a program with content. That's what this story is: Maybe "fun,'' but definitely "filler.''
