It was Lucille Ball who said, “I’d rather regret the things I’ve done, than the things I haven’t done.” These are wise words from a true icon, but Ms. Ball clearly wasn’t thinking of my decision to wear Hammer pants to my first day of seventh grade, or of Lehman Brothers as they famously overleveraged themselves into sudden bankruptcy. But she sure could have been posthumously thinking of the Dallas Cowboys opting out of the Brian Burns sweepstakes a season ago.

Burns, a 2x Pro Bowl pass rusher, was on the trade market a little over a year ago. The Carolina Panthers were a rebuilding team stuck at a contract impasse with their best player. They saw trading Burns was a good way to kill two birds with one stone because it would end the dispute and give them draft picks to rebuild with in return. It’s a situation that was strikingly similar to what the Cowboys just had with Micah Parsons.

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Despite being just 25-years-old with 46 career sacks to his name, Burns was met with a lukewarm trade market. Burns was eventually traded to the New York Giants for a second-round pick and two fifths. New York immediately signed Burns to a five-year, $141 million contract that sits at $28,200,000 in APY, and the rest is history.

At the time of the Burns trade, Dallas had both DeMarcus Lawrence and Parsons at edge so the need for someone like Burns wasn’t apparent. Who would have guessed just one year later the Cowboys would lose both their starting defensive ends? If only they knew then what we know now, maybe they could have done something about it. Instead, the Cowboys are left regretting the trade they didn’t make.

Burns isn’t the pass rusher Parsons is, though few are. But Burns is still one of the top edge players in the NFL, more than capable of leading a championship level unit, and just as importantly, a virtual bargain in all senses of the word. Not only was the compensation sent to Carolina low, but his contract that runs through his prime years is a bargain.

Contract values have since exploded in the NFL with Parsons making a staggering $18,300,000 more per year than Burns. Ranking ninth in APY, Burns already looks like one of the best bangs for the buck. Given the market, it’s safe to assume he’ll look even more so each year that ticks by.

Predicting market values and roster churn isn’t easy in the NFL, but for front offices like Dallas, that’s kinda the business they’re are in. The Cowboys front office should have been able to see at least some of this coming and acted proactively. Maybe they didn’t know their relationship with Parsons was going to implode but they probably knew Lawrence was on his way out. Maybe they didn’t know player salaries would balloon they way they did but they probably knew they’d inflate significantly.

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To think one of the best young defensive ends in the NFL was attainable for less than a first-round pick. It was a player who has now averaged nearly 10 sacks per season since becoming a starter. A player who’s been an iron man, playing at least 15 games in every season he’s been in the league. A player who already has two sacks in just one game this season.

It’s a trade that, in hindsight, the Cowboys should regret not making. Just something to think about as the Cowboys host Burns and the Giants in Week 2.

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This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Burns Notice: Cowboys should’ve traded for DE who ended up with GIants