NFL Insider Talks the Cowboys, Jerry Jones and Potential Trades

The Dallas Cowboys are not done adding to their defensive roster.

That’s obvious to executives around the NFL.

Owner Jerry Jones was clearly upset after the Cowboys gave a game away to the previously winless Buccaneers on Thursday night. The frustration around that team, which Jones truly believed could compete for a Super Bowl according to people familiar with how he thinks, was palpable. The first trade target Jones secured – cornerback Joey Porter Jr. – was sick and could not play but he also is not going to be able address a suspect pass rush and weak defensive front that is undermining the Cowboys yet again.

"Oh, Jerry is definitely doing something else," one GM who has done deals with him in the past told me this weekend. "He’s still looking around."

Before we get to Jones’s ongoing efforts to improve his defensive roster, however, let’s dole out some blame where it’s due. This is Jones’s production along with his son, Stephen. They have autonomy of staff hires and the roster and exert it on a daily basis and it’s clear they have missed the mark across the board with this defensive group.

Dallas has allowed 5.1 yards/carry, which is bottom three in the NFL. Teams get explosive gains on the ground against them with abandon, same as it ever was. It’s an ongoing epidemic … but somehow this year not the biggest problem. Because opposing quarterbacks are gouging them at a far more troubling rate.

Entering Sunday’s games, with the Cowboys having played five times already, NFL passers have a rating of 120.5, worst in the NFL. They are allowing quarterbacks to complete 72% of their passes, 30th in the NFL entering Week 5 Sunday games and 8.3 yards per passing attempt, tied for second worst. They have not been fundamentally sound, the players do not seem to understand the coverage assignments, and they cannot engender pass rush, with just five sacks through five weeks and one of the worst pressure rates in the NFL.

Rookie defensive coordinator Christian Parker, 34, is generating a lot of scrutiny at a time teams are demoting coordinators and re-assigning play-calling duties around the league. Just because Jones recently hired him doesn’t mean things can’t change quickly in Big D.

"He’s over his head," one longtime NFL exec who has watched Dallas told me. "But he’s also an easy scapegoat. It’s really on Jerry’s dumb ass for hiring him before he was ready and hiring all those bad assistant coaches as well. It’s a staff problem and a personnel problem.

"If you can’t stop Tampa at home with an undrafted quarterback, who can you stop? They are playing with no confidence. They should call (longtime former NFL defensive coordinator) Wink Martindale right now. He’s what they need."

Martindale, who has had successful runs in many NFL and college stops, would bring immediate swagger to this unit and he would sell out to get to the quarterback no matter what. Which is probably required. Because while Porter Jr. can help their coverage, he’s not any bite to a toothless pass rush.

So what else needs to happen?

"Dude, you know Jerry, he’s going to add a pass rusher," the GM said. "He knows he (messed up) trading (Micah) Parsons (to Green Bay) last year. That haunts him."

Multiple personnel executives believe the Cowboys are well positioned to do business with the Cardinals, who are trading receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. and probably quarterback Jacoby Brissett too if they can and are tanking for 2027. Arizona edge rusher Josh Sweat has wanted out of there since Jonathan Gannon was fired as head coach at the end of last season. The drumbeat about his discontent is getting louder and Arizona is being proactive with Harrison going soon and having been told he’s already played his last game for the team back in Week 4.

Sweat might not be that far behind and look for the Cowboys to be aggressive in a market that will have no shortage of suitors. Raiders All Pro Maxx Crosby is less certain to be moved, doing business with the rival Giants for Kayvon Thibodeaux, and Jones needs someone with a proven resume of getting home, not just potential.

"The division (NFC East) is wide open, Jerry is going to do something else," said another longtime NFL personnel executive who spent much of his career in that division. "He needs to get to the quarterback."