Jerry Jones pulled off his splash trade after spending most of Monday telling anyone who would listen that he had a few notable deals in the works.
The Cowboys landed star defensive tackle Quinnen Williams in a blockbuster trade with the Jets hours before Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline. The Cowboys sent a 2027 first-round pick to New York, but the team will have to relinquish the higher pick between theirs and the one it gained from the Packers in the trade with Micah Parsons. Dallas also gave up a ’26 second-round pick and defensive tackle Mazi Smith for Williams’s services.
Dallas has plenty of catching up to do in the standings, but now has hopes of a second-half turnaround after the defensive reinforcements with the arrival of Williams and linebacker Logan Wilson, whom the Cowboys acquired earlier Tuesday in a trade with the Bengals. More importantly, this savvy trade could actually help the Cowboys in the long run.
This is the Jets’ second blockbuster trade of the day. They clearly want a fresh slate after trading Williams and sending star cornerback Sauce Gardner to the Colts. Instead of the Cowboys loading up on draft picks, it’s the Jets who want to acquire as many selections to land a franchise quarterback.
Here are the grades for one of the biggest trades on Tuesday.
Cowboys
The Cowboys’ owner and GM couldn’t resist the urge to make a splash trade for a team that desperately needed to prioritize its future.
Standing pat or keeping Parsons would still be better options for this team, but I’ll pull back a bit on what I said last night after the Cowboys fell to the Cardinals.
Trading for edge rushers Maxx Crosby or Trey Hendrickson would have been a massive mistake. But there’s some upside to landing Williams, who turns 28 next month and is younger than those two aforementioned edge players. This move ends the Cowboys’ long search for a stout defensive tackle. However, Dallas gave up plenty of its draft capital and lost some cap-space flexibility. Williams could soon need a new contract because he doesn’t have much guaranteed money left on the four-year, $96 million contract extension he signed with the Jets in 2023.
Again, building a younger, well-rounded team made more sense. But at the same time, I do like some of the short-term benefits the Cowboys get here and there are some perks for the future, too. Dallas still has multiple first-round picks next year to fill the void at edge rusher. This team knows how to draft edge players, but the same couldn’t be said about interior defensive linemen. Now, they don’t have to worry about that position because of the arrival of Williams. Still, Williams has only one sack this season and will need to regain his top form after a few down years.
Yes, the Cowboys (3–5–1) and their poor defense are better now with Williams, but there’s still a good chance this team misses the postseason. The Eagles (6–2) have a sizable lead in the NFC East, and landing a wild-card spot might require at least 11 wins this season. The NFC West appears to have three playoff-caliber teams, and the NFC North has four teams at .500 or better.
Even if the Cowboys make the playoffs, they don’t appear good enough to win the Super Bowl, especially with an offense that has struggled in recent weeks after a strong start to the season. But the Cowboys protected themselves by not trading the first-round pick they own for next year. And the addition of Williams could help this team contend next year, especially if the Cowboys hit on their draft picks in 2026.
Landing Williams is more about contending next year without sacrificing all of the flexibility the team gained in trading Parsons. But Jones doesn’t get a complete pass for essentially sacrificing this season for a shot at glory in 2026.
Grade: B+
Jets
I applaud the Jets for opting for the full makeover route in hopes of landing a franchise quarterback and building the right roster for new coach Aaron Glenn and GM Darren Mougey.
The new decision-makers quickly realized that winning with the previous regimen’s core group wasn’t going to work. They made a hard pivot in trading Williams and Gardner and now have a boatload of draft picks. This team couldn't afford a quick-fix route like the Cowboys because it doesn’t have Dak Prescott on its roster.
Too many times, teams hold onto their veteran stars in the back end of their prime while knowing very well that they’re still a few years away from winning games, like the Raiders with Crosby and the Browns with Myles Garrett.
Still, the Jets need to nail these picks, and that hasn’t been a strength of theirs for many years, especially at quarterback. But they now have several at-bats thanks to all the picks they accumulated in the blockbuster trades for Gardner and Williams. That now leaves star wide receiver Garrett Wilson as the lone building block on this team, but he could help the incoming rookie quarterback for years to come. Then again, everyone could be available in the next hour or two or in March when the new league year opens.
Grade: A
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Jets-Cowboys Trade Grades: Jerry Jones Finally Gets a Deal Right.