The Dallas Cowboys are coming off of a 30-27 loss to the Carolina Panthers that encapsulates their season fairly well. In that Week 6 game, they got great offense handicapped by poor defense leading to a game in which they grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory. 

With the current state of the team, the question has become whether or not the team needs to start turning its attention to next season and, if so, whether or not that entails selling off some of the current members of the team in order to accumulate more draft capital.

Well, it seems like Cowboys fans received an answer to that question, albeit an unclear one. As reported by Todd Archer of ESPN, Jerry Jones said the following during his weekly appearance on 105.3 The Fan.

There are two parts of this quote to break down. Firstly, it's hardly surprising that the team is talking about improving the defense. Pick a defensive metric and Dallas is in the bottom five.

Points given up per game (31st), yards surrendered per game (32nd), overall PFF defensive grade (32nd), the list goes on. The run defense is, ironically after the Micah Parsons trade, last in PFF’s grades and No. 29 in yards surrendered per game. 

The pass defense, meanwhile, is the inverse as it is dead-last in yards per game and No. 29 in the league according to PFF. No matter how you look at it, this defense needs help. 

Mentioning the offense in his quote is somewhat surprising, but likely no more than Jones just saying things for the sake of saying them. For as bad as the defense has been, the offense has been elite. 

Fifth best offensive PFF grade, third most points scored per game, and the league leaders in yards per game, there aren’t many holes that need to be filled offensively. This is even more impressive when you consider all of the injuries along the offensive line and to CeeDee Lamb. 

Assuming Dallas continues on its current trajectory, it’s somewhat difficult to justify adding short term pieces. This team is limited in its ceiling and unlikely to make a serious run at the playoffs. 

But if a long term piece becomes available, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take advantage of an opportunity that could help the franchise in future seasons, even if the current iteration of the team has shown its colors. Say, for example, a young pass rusher became available, able to fill one of the Cowboys’ biggest needs for multiple seasons, then that’s something the team should pounce on. 

Alas, players like that rarely become available as one such player would surely be worth multiple first-round picks and a high level player. Surely, no team is crazy enough to pull the trigger on shipping out a player like that.