BRIAN GEIGER
LAGRANGEVILLE , NY
It would seem that with the development of Terrance Williams and Cole Beasley and the need at wide receiver for other teams, especially the Atlanta Falcons, this would be a great opportunity to trade Miles Austin. Is his contract the biggest roadblock to trading him?
Nick: Yeah, the Cowboys simply don't have the cap room right now to trade him. If they got rid of him, he'd count about $10 million on the cap right now. People always think the other team takes on the contract and the original team is free. That's not the case. The prorated signing bonus money is there for "dead" money whether the player is cut or traded. So it doesn't make sense to do that.
David: On top of what Nick said, you have to take the rest of Austin's contract into account with whatever team he would be traded to. His deal doesn't expire until 2017, which means he's got three years left on the contract in addition to the final 10 games of this season. It's a big commitment for a team to make considering Austin's health issues.
JOHN MASIADO
HELLERTOWN, PA
If the coaching staff remains concerned about coverage on tight ends by the safeties, why on Earth was Will Allen released? Wasn't he brought in to help in this area?
Nick: He was brought on to start if no one else could beat him out. Matt Johnson got hurt and J.J. Wilcox took a little bit to catch on. But with Allen playing only so-so on special teams, he became expendable. [embedded_ad]
David: In an ideal world, that's exactly what would have happened. But take a look at Allen's career stats, and you see a guy who only made 35 starts in 136 career games, and he hasn't caught on as a regular starter since 2006, when he was 24 years old. Allen was a great locker room presence, but he wasn't a significantly better option than Wilcox or Jeff Heath in the starting lineup, which makes it hard to justify his roster spot.
