NFL Trade Deadline: In the Final Hours, Jerry Jones Says the Cowboys Have Had No Meaningful Trade Dialogue in Two or Three Weeks
The deadline is 3 p.m. Central today. Jones told 105.3 The Fan the phones at The Star are not ringing, that the front office has not had a meaningful dialogue about any player in weeks — and that the one move Dallas will make Tuesday is adding a running back, probably by signing one.
FRISCO — The NFL trade deadline arrives at 3 p.m. Central today, and the Dallas Cowboys are heading into its final hours the way they spent its morning: quiet. Owner and general manager Jerry Jones, making his weekly Tuesday appearance on 105.3 The Fan's Shan & RJ show, said he does not expect Dallas to make a significant trade, and went further than his morning line when asked how much the club's 4-5 start is weighing on the approach. "I don't know. I don't. I can't answer that. I don't know," Jones said, according to the Dallas Sports Journal's report of the appearance, published at 11:12 a.m. CST today and read in full by this desk. "Because I haven't had a chance to really maneuver or think about or discuss back and forth with the team. We haven't had a chance to have a meaningful dialogue here over the last two or three weeks about any player that we'd be interested in."
Jones borrowed an old country song to describe the silence at The Star. "You know that old country song, when that phone's not ringing, that's me calling," he said. "So it's really not ringing, which you've heard me say numerous times. That's when you make a trade, but don't count it out. A lot of things happen on this last day, but I don't look for us to make a significant trade today." The position matches the rest of the building: Jones said on the station's pregame show two days earlier that "at this point, I don't see it," and Cowboys COO Stephen Jones told the station Monday that it was "pretty quiet on our front." Dallas's only in-season trade remains the October 1 deal that brought cornerback Joey Porter Jr. from the Pittsburgh Steelers for a 2028 second-round pick and a 2027 sixth-round pick — a very different posture from last year's deadline, when the Cowboys sent a first-round pick, a second-round pick and defensive tackle Mazi Smith to the New York Jets for Quinnen Williams.
One move is still coming today, and it is a signing, not a trade. Jones said the Cowboys will add a running back on Tuesday, probably through free agency, with Tyler Goodson out multiple weeks with a knee injury. Asked where the defense most needs help, Jones declined to name a position and pointed instead to injuries at linebacker and in the secondary — safety P.J. Locke has sustained his second concussion in as many weeks and has been ruled out for Sunday, safety Jalen Thompson has been on injured reserve with a hamstring injury since September 30, and Porter missed the Colts game with a foot and ankle injury. The 4-5 Cowboys, coming off a 27-23 win over Indianapolis, host the 7-1 San Francisco 49ers on Sunday at AT&T Stadium, with kickoff at 3:25 p.m. CT on FOX. This desk will report any deal the club actually makes before the 3 p.m. deadline; none is reported here, because none had been made when Jones spoke.
