Prior to the Dallas Cowboys‘ game against the Arizona Cardinals on Monday night, owner Jerry Jones revealed that the Cowboys were closing in on a trade to bolster their defense. Then, just ahead of the NFL trade deadline on Tuesday, it was revealed that Dallas had completed a deal for Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson.
During Dallas’ embarrassing 27-17 home loss to the Cardinals, legendary Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman took a shot at his former team during the broadcast and didn’t think Dallas should even bother swinging a trade.
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“He might want to cancel that trade,” Aikman said of Jones. “Because no one player is going to make a difference on this defense, with what we’re seeing here … (the Cowboys) are not a good football team.”
Dallas is now 3-5-1 on the season and has gone just 1-3 over its last four contests. The Cowboys’ defense ranks 31st in the NFL in both yards allowed and scoring defense. While Dallas’ defensive effort wasn’t hideous on Monday evening, it still surrendered 340 yards to a Cardinals offense that was missing starting quarterback Kyler Murray.
As for the Wilson trade, the Cowboys sent a seventh-round draft pick to the Cincinnati Bengals in exchange for the 29-year-old, who signed a four-year, $36 million contract extension with the Bengals in July 2023. He has two years remaining on his deal after this season.
Wilson has logged 46 tackles and four passes defended thus far in 2025 and has rattled off four straight campaigns of 100 tackles, topping out at 135 in 2023.
The former third-round pick boasted a brilliant 90.0 run defense grade at Pro Football Focus last season, but that was by far a career high for him. Through the first half of 2025, that number has dipped to 58.1 for Wilson.
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The Cowboys’ defense began experiencing significant issues last year, and things obviously got a whole lot worse once they traded Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers shortly before the start of the season.
While Wilson is a solid player, Aikman may have a point in wondering whether or not any one trade will actually help Dallas’ defense for the rest of this year.
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