Philadelphia Eagles Rumors: Is Dak Prescott recruiting Deebo Samuel?

Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown are very good friends.

They’ve known each other since high school, worked out together during the offseason, and even dreamed about playing together at some point in their career, which you can read more about here. Because of this connection, Hurts went to bat advocating for a Philadelphia Eagles-Tennessee Titans trade, and Brown committed to giving his friend his all this fall.

That sort of friendship is commendable and should prove incredibly valuable over an 18 week NFL season, but has Hurts’ preferred methods of team building started to travel across the NFL? Unfortunately, if the recent interaction between Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott and disgruntled San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel at a home Dallas Mavericks playoff game – instead of attending voluntary workouts – is of any indication, it just might.

Would this new, not-quite-tempering tempering between players on separate teams harm the integrity of the league? Eh, maybe a bit, but that’s the owners’ problem, not ours. No, our problem as fans of the Philadelphia Eagles would be Deebo Samuel on the Dallas Cowboys, as he’s a darn good wide receiver who might just be good enough to put Jerry Jones’ squad right back in the driver’s seat of the NFC East.

Deebo to Dallas could be a problem for the Philadelphia Eagles.

As things presently stand, the Philadelphia Eagles are the favorites to win the NFC East. Peter King thinks so, naming the Eagles the ninth-best team in the NFL, as does CBS Sports’ Pete Prisco, and even Skip Bayless, the Cowboys fan in the eyes of many, has declared that the Eagles have leapfrogged his favorite team in terms of talent.

Would that dynamic change if the Cowboys added Deebo Samuel? That, my friends, is a very good question.

After trading away Amari Cooper for essentially a fifth-round pick and allowing Cedrick Wilson to leave in free agency – though not intentionally – the Cowboys’ receiving corps isn’t great. Sure, they have CeeDee Lamb, who can certainly go, and Michael Gallup, who tore his ACL back in Week 17, but other than that, the Cowboys are looking at receiving corps of James Washington, Noah Brown, and Jalen Tolbert, a third round pick out of Southern Alabama.

Without Samuel, that lineup is okay, not bad by any means, but not great either. With Samuel? Well, that’s a darn good lineup even if Gallup can’t go right away.

As you probably recall from the pre-draft DeeboMania that swept the City of Brotherly Love, Samuel is a fantastic wide receiver. He can produce from any spot across the offense, from flanker to slot, X, and even running back, and has a unique ability to pick up yards after the catches to the point where he was essentially the Niners’ entire third down offense.

Need six yards? Throw it to Deebo and let him get to work.

While the Cowboys don’t need that sort of instant offense per se, as their run game and passing game were both very good in 2021, adding a blue chip player always makes a team better, especially at a position of need.

Now granted, the asking price for Samuel’s services may ultimately prove too high for even the Cowboys’ tastes. The New York Jets reportedly put in a very good offer right around the draft, and considering Samuel is still a member of the 49ers and Garrett Wilson is not, that clearly didn’t go through.

Then again, it’s not like the Cowboys are a team unwilling to pay up for talent. If Jerry Jones wants to go all-in on winning now, there aren’t many options more enticing than Samuel, especially if he’s already tight with Dak Prescott.

In the grand scheme of things, trading for Deebo Samuel might actually be a net negative for the Dallas Cowboys. Samuel will certainly demand an expensive contract in the not too distant future, and considering how many massive contracts are already on the Cowboys’ books, adding another nine-figure deal could destroy their depth moving forward. For the Philadelphia Eagles, that would be good news long-term. But in the short-term? Oof, guarding Samuel in that offense would be tricky indeed.