The door on a promising Dallas Cowboys trade opportunity was just slammed shut by an NFC East division rival

Well, that was fast. On Monday, I wrote about how the Dallas Cowboys had the chance to pull off a trade that made plenty of sense if they wanted to recover some draft picks after getting rid of multiple earlier in the offseason.

That door was just slammed shut. 

After the Miami Dolphins traded tight end Jonnu Smith to the Pittsburgh Steelers, they started shopping for a replacement and the Cowboys had a strong candidate for the occasion, I argued. 

I was thinking about Luke Schoonmaker, of course. You see, the former second-round draft pick hasn't quite lived up to expectations but more than that, my idea stemmed from the fact that he could realistically be the third tight end on the depth chart by the time the regular season starts.

Brevyn Spann-Ford has been a riser this offseason and he could very well win the backup job to Jake Ferguson. With that in mind, Schoonmaker could've been a tradeable player. 

The Cowboys are famously obsessed with owning draft picks and as of right now, they don't have a sixth-round nor a third-round pick in 2026. They're also projected to own only one comp pick. It made sense on several fronts. 

The door was slammed shut by the New York Giants

As it turns out, the Dolphins did look the NFC East's way for help but instead of the Cowboys, they went with an out-of-the-box solution. They traded for Giants TE Darren Waller, who's coming out of retirement to sign a new deal with Miami.

I'll give the Giants credit where credit is due: It was a pretty good move. They're losing nothing considering Waller was never going to return to play for them. Essentially, they're getting a free 2026 conditional pick. 

With all that being said, the Cowboys probably didn't seriously consider trading Schoonmaker away but I thought it was an intriguing opportunity they could've looked at.