All you had to do to understand how Jerry Jones was about to fix the Dallas Cowboys was listen to his radio show Tuesday morning on 105.3 FM and believe.
OK, that’s a sentence I never typed in my first 27 years as a columnist, and I’m not sure it will show up again in the next 27. But the only lie he told was one he was forced to when asked about Mazi Smith, who was about to (hold your applause) become a New York Jet.
But that’s hardly all Jones accomplished Tuesday when the Cowboys sent first- and second-round picks to the Jets in exchange for Quinnen Williams, arguably the best defensive tackle in the NFL and pretty much in anyone’s top three. And his contract is not expiring, so it’s not as if he’s a rental for a 3-5-1 team that has no business making deals for a run at this year’s playoffs.
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But when you have Dak in Season 10 and CeeDee in Season 6, you also can’t afford to just fall in love with those draft picks accumulated in the Micah Parsons trade two months ago. As a result, Jones has now, effectively, dealt Parsons and Mazi Smith and a second-round pick in 2026 for Williams, Clark and a first-round pick this spring. The first-round pick going to the Jets next year will be the higher pick between the Cowboys’ own selection and the one they got from Green Bay.
If you say that’s not enough for Parsons, that case can be made, but it’s a lot harder to articulate now. The Cowboys got two defensive tackles for roughly the same amount of money per season that Green Bay is paying Parsons, and if that doesn’t begin to show up later this season and become much more recognizable in 2026 when this club really has to compete, it will be a surprise.
New York Jets defensive tackle Quinnen Williams (95) tackles Denver Broncos running back Javonte Williams (33) during the fourth quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
Seth Wenig / AP
Jones was in full apology mode after a game he described as “really very, very, very, very disappointing. I’m pretty frustrated with how we got here, my decision-making. I am supremely responsible for where we are right now, I accept that. That doesn’t deter me from getting it done and getting it done now.’’
Solid apologies are nothing new for Jones. He has issued them for years. It is almost inexorable that he will come strong with an apology at some point each season, but his failing is that it is never followed by anything other than his own determination to do better, to work harder.
And in a league where 31 other GMs are working hard to keep their jobs, but no one else is negotiating hockey games or boxing matches or World Cup soccer dates to be played in their building — never mind his sometimes rambling oil discussion with The Wall Street Journal last week — hard work isn’t getting it done.
Taking advantage of a Jets’ fire sale on the other hand? Fully deserving of Cowboys fans’ applause.
You might be wishing it was the Cowboys and not the Colts who landed all-pro cornerback Sauce Gardner off the New York roster Tuesday, especially after watching DaRon Bland get eaten alive by Arizona’s Marvin Harrison Jr. Monday night. But let’s see what having three high-quality defensive tackles — Williams, Osa Odighizuwa and Clark — in the rotation does for this defense long term. And you’ve still got two ones to play with in the draft this spring.
In a world where the draft has become such an overblown event, where an entire cottage industry of self-styled draft gurus are ready to take your money or just your time spent listening to their genius, when the reality is that even the best personnel men drafting for teams aren’t great at the job because of the unpredictability of college athletes, especially quarterback, it’s good to know the Cowboys didn’t get caught up in falling in love with those picks.
A proven Pro Bowl player, a known quantity is always better than the potential that the draftniks so dearly love to pontificate about.
Jones talked about being 82, about time not being on his side, about not having time to have a bad time. This season is going to remain on his bad time list, I’m afraid. You can’t look at how this team played against Denver and Arizona in failing to 3-5-1 and start projecting wins over the Eagles, the Lions, the Chiefs, the Chargers and the Vikings in a five-game stretch. If they win two of those games, they’re doing well. Three would be a miracle. And three would still have them at 7-7-1 with two to play. That’s almost surely not in playoff contention when the Cowboys have six wild card teams ahead of them and another one tied (Arizona at 3-5) that now owns the tiebreaker.
Cracking that top three just isn’t going to happen. But for eight games with Williams at the three technique, we can at least get a glimpse of whether or not what Matt Eberflus wants to do has any hope of working here. It would be great for this team if it’s not looking at a fourth defensive coordinator in four years next summer in Oxnard. But that spot needs to be earned, and Williams as the savior represents a hope that did not exist for the Dallas defense Tuesday morning.
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