Let’s recap the past two weeks for the Dallas Cowboys.
They got paddled at home 47-9 by the Detroit Lions. Team owner Jerry Jones went from threatening to fire hosts on the team’s flagship radio station one week, to throwing head coach Mike McCarthy’s offensive scheme under the bus the next week. Quarterback Dak Prescott has continued to regress from his near-MVP form of 2023, with one of his worst back-to-back performances in years. A fully padded up cornerback, Trevon Diggs, confronted a media member outside the locker room following Sunday’s 30-24 defeat to the San Francisco 49ers, upset about a tweet that questioned his play. Oh, and lest we forget — Dallas has just entered the most difficult part of its schedule on another loss that appears to have left the team spiraling.
If this isn’t a five-alarm fire screaming for a shakeup, nothing is. And if Jones can’t see that, nothing will change.
This feels like 2018 all over again. That’s when the Cowboys were 3-4, coming off a loss to a mediocre Washington team, and looking like they were on the verge of nosing down into the abyss. Maybe the only differences between 2018 and now, Prescott was actually playing cleaner football six years ago, Jones wasn’t wound nearly as tight as he is now and the atmosphere around the team wasn’t as suffocating as the current environment. The 2018 Cowboys were at least bold enough to understand when a big swing was needed to salvage the season.
That’s where these Cowboys are right now, back in that familiar trench of mediocrity, facing a season that is threatening to get away from them, and needing to make a move that can get things back on track. In 2018, the answer to that problem was aggressive and exciting. More importantly, it was actually fruitful: the acquisition of then-24-year-old wideout Amari Cooper from the Raiders, a star player in a funk who needed a change of scenery.
The memory of that moment has surely faded or been tainted in the minds of Cowboys fans. After all, Cooper was never able to help Dallas break through to a Super Bowl. But those who remember it accurately know his acquisition played a signifiant part in jumpstarting the Cowboys six years ago. Prescott badly needed a weapon to help him turn a corner, and Cooper was precisely the piece that helped make it happen. The 3-4 Cowboys finished the season on a 7-2 run, wining the NFC East, then beating the Seattle Seahawks in the playoffs, before falling to the Super Bowl-bound Los Angeles Rams in the divisional round.
Cooper was a significant part of that, catching 53 passes in the Cowboys’ nine remaining regular-season games, accounting for 725 receiving yards and six touchdowns. He balanced Dallas’ offense and energized the team when it badly needed an adrenaline shot. Yes, he came at the cost of a first-round draft pick, but that selection ended up being 27th overall in 2019 — and the Raiders used it on safety Johnathan Abram, who had his fifth-year option declined and never got a second contract with the franchise. That deal was worth the price tag for the Cowboys, especially given the quality production Cooper had in Dallas, including being a significant part of two playoff teams in his 3 1/2 seasons with the team.
It’s an important snapshot in time because it most accurately mirrors what is happening in Dallas right now. Its defense is stagnating under the weight of injured playmakers, and its offense is completely imbalanced and one-dimensional — thanks to a skill-position basket of wideout CeeDee Lamb and a collection of loose parts. Simply put, it’s lacking. It’s lacking a veteran running back like Derrick Henry, who absolutely could have been had if the Cowboys really wanted to pursue him in free agency. It’s lacking a promising young wideout like Ladd McConkey or Keon Coleman, both of whom were on the draft board when Dallas took offensive tackle Tyler Guyton with the 29th pick in 2024.
Most of all, it’s lacking imagination and dimension. It’s a faded, sun-bleached and weathered copy of the Dallas offense in 2023, which at least felt threatening and, at times, explosive.
You see a scenario where Jones has to do something. The natural inclination of the fan base is to subtract, which is understandable. Pangs of emotion scream to fire McCarthy or his coordinators. But that’s just anger speaking. The only real way out of this is to add something. Maybe something big — but at the very least, something that can help. It doesn’t matter which side of the football we’re talking about. There are significant issues all over the roster. Additional talent is needed. And that Nov. 5 trade deadline is coming like a freight train.
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Who could draw interest for Cowboys on the trade market
So let’s start with a baseline. First and foremost, the Cowboys have draft capital to make some kind of move. Large, medium or small. They own all of their 2025 draft picks from Rounds 1 through 6. They also are expected to get at least four compensatory draft picks in the fifth and sixth rounds, by virtue of losing talent in free agency and then responding by being a dead fish when it came to offseason signings. As for salary-cap space, there is more than $23 million available under this year’s cap for an acquisition. Yes, a large portion of it needs to be rolled into 2025 for future contract extensions. But there is enough to make some kind of move at the deadline. Maybe even a meaningful move.
So what’s available?
The trade market won’t truly pick up steam until later this week. Here’s a limited snapshot of what’s out there:
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The New England Patriots are ready to move linebacker Joshua Uche, who can be had pretty cheap. A fifth-round pick would get a deal done.
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The New York Jets have offensive line depth available, and also cornerback D.J. Reed, who is not in the plans for a contract extension this offseason.
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And the Carolina Panthers are taking calls on most of the roster, aside from their core young players. But if a team is looking for a capable veteran, there is available talent. Wideout Diontae Johnson is one. Running back Miles Sanders is another. There’s also wideout Adam Thielen, who would have to come back from injured reserve this week to be eligible for a trade. On defense, basically any healthy veteran player not named Jaycee Horn.
This is just a starting point. Some teams will be more motivated and aggressive this week, with next Monday and Tuesday morning (Nov. 4 and 5) being the shark-fest.
Jones and the Cowboys have options to look at right now. And if they truly want to get aggressive — maybe even first-round pick aggressive, as they did in 2018 — there are surely some options on the table that won’t be apparent until a deal is completed. Much like Cooper’s trade to Dallas six years ago.
The time to get this on track is right now, when a path to the NFC East title is still imaginable. And before the NFC North starts to beat up on itself in divisional play, which could open a path to a wild-card playoff seed that doesn’t seem likely right now. The next four games for Dallas are the Atlanta Falcons, Philadelphia Eagles, Houston Texans and Washington Commanders — four teams with a combined record of 22-9, with three currently in first place in their respective divisions and the fourth team (the Eagles) in second place.
This is the ledge. It’s here for Dallas. Just like it was in 2018. The only question is whether the Cowboys are willing to pay the price for another set of wings, or content to continue this path off the cliff and into the season’s oblivion.
