Cowboys Make Surprising Decision on Potential Trade at Deadline

Don’t expect the Dallas Cowboys to be overly aggressive at the trade deadline.

As the Cowboys enter the NFL trade deadline, pundits expect Dallas to be buyers. The Cowboys have a number of key areas they can improve, including at running back and cornerback. However, don’t expect Dallas to be the one making the calls. According to team owner Jerry Jones, other teams are going to have to be the aggressors in order for a trade to be completed involving the Cowboys.

Via Patrik Walker of the Cowboys’ official website:

“It’d have to come my way,” Jones told 105.3FM the Fan on Tuesday. “I don’t want to preclude anything in any way, but it always does. You have a lot of machinations that you’re working through there. The initiation of an opportunity to make a trade at this time that would help us, principally, would have to start on the other end.”

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Jerry Jones Explains Approach to Trade at Deadline

While Jones brings up how the initiation would have to start the other way, he stresses that the team’s game plan entering the deadline is not from a “lack of aggressiveness.”

“That’s not showing a lack of aggressiveness, it’s just that’s where it starts. I like where we are with our personnel today. I’m not thinking, in any way, that we need to upgrade our roster.”

The Cowboys have been no stranger to big trades over the past year. Prior to the start of the 2023 season, Dallas completed three major trades that saw them acquire former 1,000-yard receiver Brandin Cooks, former Defensive Player of the Year Stephon Gilmore and former No. 3 overall pick Trey Lance.

Those three trades saw Dallas flip late round draft capital, including a fourth-round draft pick, two fifth-round draft picks and a sixth-round draft pick

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Cowboys Could Upgrade at Running Back and Cornerback

Dallas is currently 4-2 — they’ll host the Los Angeles Rams right before the trade deadline on October 31 — and are just a couple weeks removed from a 42-10 beatdown at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers.

Points of weakness for the Cowboys are the lack of viable options at running back behind Tony Pollard, the team’s inefficiency in the red zone — they rank 26th in red zone percentage — and a lack of depth at cornerback following the season-ending injury to No. 1 corner Trevon Diggs.

Despite those clear deficiencies, Jones explains why his wait-and-see approach is a lot better than being overly aggressive in initiating a trade.

“It’s your leg and weight — I have areas of the team that I could, if certain circumstances happen — improve,” he said. “So you don’t know that your best chance to get it done is when it comes by you and you grab it. That’s just generally speaking. To go out and push it, the odds of getting it done at the price or trade conditions that you would expect is draining.”

Due to their prior trades, Dallas is lacking in draft capital — especially in the later rounds — in 2024. In fact, they don’t have a fourth, fifth or sixth-round draft pick in 2024.

We’ll see if the Cowboys’ strategy pays off with any moves at the deadline. But considering Jones’ approach and the lack of draft capital in the immediate draft, it may be more likely that Dallas goes without pulling off a big move.

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