Dallas Cowboys: Why the Cincinnati Bengals are the perfect trade partner

The Dallas Cowboys will be looking for a new playmaking wide receiver and some help defensively. The Cincinnati Bengals could be the perfect partner.

The Dallas Cowboys could be looking to make some moves in the offseason as several big name players will be in line for a new contract. The Cowboys need to add an elite wide receiver or at the very least a solid deep threat to the roster.

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The Cincinnati Bengals are in full-fledged rebuild mode so a lot of changes will be coming to that organization. With these two teams in flux (albeit going in opposite directions) it may make more sense to do business with each other than to focus on free agency or anything else.

The Bengals are on the decline and that means a lot of veterans in their locker room are probably looking for a change of scenery. Head coach, Marvin Lewis is apparently stepping away from the team at the end of the season and that will mean roster turnover.

Lewis has been there for a long time, and a lot of the guys in the Bengals locker room are his players. A new regime would likely make a lot of changes to this team and two of the Bengals biggest stars could be involved.

Wide receiver AJ Green and defensive lineman Geno Atkins could be the biggest trade targets on the Bengals roster. Both players could potentially get out of their contracts by 2019 and both are veterans in the NFL. Green will be 30 next season however he has been an elite wide receiver for most of his career.

He has been on some of the worst Bengals football teams in recent memory but consistently produced as a number one target. That is until this season, now Green has struggled in an offense that has pretty much been going nowhere.

At this point in his career, he will be looking to play for a contender as he will likely not want to spend the rest of his prime with Cincinnati. The Bengals do not even know who will be under center for them in 2018 as a new regime may want to draft a new quarterback, so keeping a 29-year-old AJ Green (with a 9.5 million dollar cap hit) may not be something they look to do.

The same could be said about Atkins who also is 29. The Bengals defense needs to be completely re-tooled from the ground up and the team may value draft picks over the aging defensive lineman.

Atkins was a fourth-round pick back in 2010 and has since become one of the more complete defenders on the Bengals roster. He can pass rush and run stop pretty effectively but once again this is a situation in which the Bengals could use cap space and draft picks so Atkins is far from a lock to be on this roster.

He is due 9.5 million dollars in 2018 and that could be too costly for the Bengals to swallow next season. Atkins has earned the right to play for a contender as he too will not want to spend the final year(s) of his prime playing for a rebuilding organization.

The Dallas Cowboys currently have the 18th pick in the 2018 NFL draft and of course, that positioning could be worse, but they will miss out on the top ten talents coming into the league in 2018.

Suppose the Dallas Cowboys win out, but fail to make the playoffs, they would be looking at a late first round pick. That pick is not going to mean much to Dallas in the long run but for the Bengals, it could mean everything.

Having two first-round picks for a rebuilding franchise is absolutely key. Trading away the Cowboys first round pick for AJ Green would make a lot of sense. The Dallas Cowboys are likely to use their first-round pick on a wide receiver or defensive lineman anyway so why not trade for a player with a track record of success?

Adding Green would immediately take the Cowboys offense to the next level. It would solve the Dez Bryant double coverage issues he has been seeing all season, but would also solve the same problem for Green who is struggling without productive playmakers around him.

The tandem of Bryant and Green would be a nightmare for opposing defenses to handle plus when you factor in Ezekiel Elliott to that mix, this offense would be unstoppable. For the Bengals, they will likely get another first-round pick in any deal for Green, Atkins is a bit of a different story considering that he plays along the defensive line.

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He could be worth a second or third round pick instead of the first AJ would be worth. It would be in the Dallas Cowboys best interest to get a playmaking wide receiver or defensive lineman during the offseason and the Bengals disarray could help benefit both teams.

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