The Dallas Cowboys are 5-1 heading into their bye week but there is always room for improvement. Bleacher Report’s Alex Ballentine suggests the Cowboys target a trade for one of three players including Jets safety Marcus Maye.
“Adding Marcus Maye to the fold could help,” Ballentine detailed. “Maye has only played in three games for the Jets this season but has allowed no touchdowns and a passer rating of 83.3 when targeted. Adding the safety could be complicated, though. It would be a tight squeeze financially. Maye would be owed around $6 million if traded near the deadline, and the team is closer to dealing him because of a DUI charge that could have him facing a suspension from the league, per Rich Cimini of ESPN.
“The Cowboys have been aggressive in addressing their safety issues, bringing in Jayron Kearse, Malik Hooker and Damontae Kazee. Yet, it’s still a position that could be improved, and Maye would fit that bill.”
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‘Maye Would Welcome a Move to a Contender’: Report
It will be worth watching how safety Damontae Kazee’s recent arrest will impact his future with the Cowboys. Dallas also has Donovan Wilson, Malik Hooker and Jayron Kearse among the top safeties on the roster, but Maye could be a good addition depending on the Jets’ asking price.
Heading into 2021, Maye had been the Jets starting free safety for the past four years. According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, Maye would, “welcome a move to a contender.”
“I continue to hear Jets safety Marcus Maye would welcome a move to a contender, and he’s a prime player to watch at the deadline,” Fowler reported on October 12. “The Jets understand they are at least a year away and could save on Maye’s $10.6 million salary. GM Joe Douglas doesn’t prioritize safety like he does offensive and defensive line, and that showed in negotiations. Maye felt undervalued.
“Maye’s offseason DUI arrest in South Florida came to light last week. Though it’s unclear if this would factor into his trade market, coach Robert Saleh has publicly supported Maye, who has served as one of the Jets’ locker-room leaders.”
The Cowboys Have Until the November 2nd NFL Trade Deadline to Make a Deal
Overall, the Cowboys secondary has performed much better than many projected this offseason thanks in large part to the emergence of Trevon Diggs. Rookie corner Kelvin Joseph is also getting healthy to potentially give the Cowboys secondary even more of a boost.
If the Cowboys are to make a move before the November 2nd trade deadline, it is likely to address the defense rather than an offense that is firing on all cylinders. Heading into the bye week, Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn emphasized that the challenge the defense faced against the Patriots should help them later this season.
“I thought [I’d] use a fighting analogy to say in the the first quarter, we definitely got knocked on our a** and all of a sudden, you’re on the canvas, looking up and the reminder was the fight wasn’t over just because you lost the first round,” Quinn explained during his October 18 press conference. “And there’s a lot of resiliency that can go with that, and I thought after the first quarter, I thought the players really did a good job making the adjustments on the game plan that we needed to make going in with one plan think[ing] it was going to be played one way and to their credit, they came out in a different way.
“…And so, like I said, it was a tough game, one that you grow from, and I think you have to be in that environment and to be in those kind of fights to know that, okay, we now know we’re never out of the fight and that’s a good feeling to have. But you can’t just say it, you have to live it. You have to go through some of those times and you have to be almost in the environment to prove it. And yesterday, that was the environment you want there’s 65,000 people there against you.”
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