The Dallas Cowboys have been in trade mode this season, and at first that didn’t go all that well. Owner Jerry Jones held his ground in a contract standoff with star edge rusher Micah Parsons, and he ended up trading Parsons to the Green Bay Packers.
The Cowboys defense went downhill fast after that, though, and that’s been keeping Dallas busy exploring trades lately. One of the Cowboys hypothetical trade targets as the deadline approaches is Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby, who’s frustrated because the Raiders aren’t winning.
To be clear, the Cowboys aren’t exactly blazing a trail to the top of the NFC East. They have made it back to .500, though, which has Crosby in their theoretical crosshairs.
The deal makes tactical sense to some extent. Crosby would replace some of what Dallas lost in the Parsons trade, i.e., he’d demand double teams that could lead to improvement.
But this is Jerry Jones we’re talking about, and making sense often gets lost in Jerry World. That was definitely the case with Jones’ statements about potential trades when he was asked to comment about this by a Dallas radio station this week.
“If there were a trade, it will be because it fits us,” Jones said in a quote picked up by Jon Machota of The Athletic. “And to fit, there’s got to be a reason why the player would leave that we’re interested in going forward with. And it would have to fit us in terms of our plans on our roster, the financial and everything that goes with that.
“Just because we played well, all of a sudden everybody thinks, boy, you’re in the hunt, so it’s time to go out and gather up all of this talent that’s waiting around out here on the trees to add to it now that we feel good that we can be more competitive. That’s not realistic. What’s realistic is that if we do see an opportunity, we are in as good a shape as we’ve been in in years with (draft) picks, with financial with our (salary) cap, we’re in as good of shape as we’ve ever been if we see a way to improve our team with a player that makes sense today, this year, next year to entertain it and look at it.”
The Cowboys’ trades to date tell a somewhat different story. They include deals for cornerback Kaiir Elam, linebacker Kenneth Murray, backup quarterback Joe Milton and receiver George Pickens, so Jones is clearly more open to the possibility than he has been in the past. He may not like paying defensive stars like Parsons, but at the moment Jones doesn't have much choice if he's serious about making the playoffs.
Much of this hinges on a meeting between Raiders brass and Crosby, which is about to happen. If Crosby comes out of that meeting reasonably happy, the trade won’t happen. If he doesn’t, though, the trade card will be on the table, and that’s when things could get really interesting.