National Football League

Cowboys-Rams trade finally completed

Published May. 9, 2010 1:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

ST. LOUIS - The Rams and Cowboys completed the trade Monday that sends tackle Alex Barron from St. Louis to Dallas for linebacker Bobby Carpenter.

Both players passed physicals, and it is believed the Rams also settled an issue with incentives in Carpenter's contract that called for him to be paid $1.895 million if he participates in 45 percent of the defensive snaps. However, it isn’t known at this time how the matter was resolved.

Barron had signed his restricted free-agent tender of $2.73 million on Friday to facilitate the trade. That tender figure is correct, not the $2.621 million figure that’s also been reported. The lower number is the tender for players with five accrued seasons where a first-round pick would be the compensation.

However, the tender can be higher when it’s based on 110 percent of the player's previous year's salary. Because Barron's 2009 salary was $2,482,500, the actual tender is $2,730,750.

That procedure doesn't normally apply to restricted free agents, but there were several similar cases this year because the uncapped year resulted in players with four and five accrued seasons becoming restricted free agents. In the past, they would have been unrestricted free agents.

Barron adds depth for Dallas, which released longtime left tackle Flozell Adams in April. Doug Free is currently slated to replace Adams in the starting lineup, but Barron will compete for that job and also is experienced at right tackle, where the Cowboys have 31-year-old Marc Colombo.

As for Carpenter, he’s expected to compete for the starting job at weak-side linebacker for the Rams and potentially remain on the field in passing situations. Last year with the Cowboys, he played 42.1 percent of the time and had 48 tackles, two sacks and four quarterback pressures. He also had eight tackles on special teams.

Howard Balzer is the Senior NFL Writer for The Sports Xchange. He also writes a weekly NFL column for the Globe-Democrat.com.