The Dallas Cowboys entered Sunday’s game against the Denver Broncos with a chance to send a message. Dallas was coming off a win over their division rival, the Washington Commanders, and were looking to make a statement that they should be contenders in the NFC.
The Cowboys were also looking to send a message to Jerry Jones to be aggressive at the NFL’s trade deadline. While Dallas had some motivation to make a deal and reportedly inquired about trading for Las Vegas Raiders star Maxx Crosby and Cincinnati Bengals star Trey Hendrickson, the Cowboys sent a different kind of message in a 44-24 loss that should put any talk of a blockbuster trade to rest.
A Blockbuster Trade Won’t Fix the Cowboys’ Real Problem
The Cowboys have several reasons to make a trade ahead of the Nov. 4 deadline. The biggest is the performance of their offense, which entered Sunday’s game with the second-highest scoring clip in the NFL at 31.7 points per game and ranked second with 6.1 yards per game.
With a championship-caliber offense, a trade could fix Dallas’s defense. But it could be a group that can’t be saved. The Cowboys entered Sunday allowing the second-highest yards per play clip in the NFL at 6.1 yards and their scoring defense was just as bad, ranking 30th at 29.4 points per game.
This was the script that played out against the Broncos. Dallas’s offense played well enough to win, racking up 339 total yards and a pair of touchdowns from Javonte Williams. But despite a pair of interceptions by Dak Prescott, it was the defense that led the Cowboys down.
Bo Nix torched the Cowboys, completing 19-of-29 passes for 247 yards, four touchdowns and an interception. But the bigger problem was Dallas’s performance against the run, which was steamrolled for 179 yards including 111 yards by J.K. Dobbins and 46 yards and two touchdowns by rookie RJ Harvey.
Defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus also suggested that he doesn’t have the players necessary to run his scheme, meaning adding a player won’t fix the problem no matter how much of a superstar he is. Then again, Eberflus himself may be the problem, but a dismissal is unlikely to happen in the middle of the season, making an aggressive approach at the deadline moot.
That won’t matter to Jones, however, who needs to have his team in the spotlight as much as possible. Acquiring a big name would be enough to keep the Cowboys relevant, although you could argue it wouldn’t be enough to solve the defense.
A better method may be to sell off what they can, stockpile draft picks and cap space to fix the issue next spring. But as of right now, making a big trade at the deadline would be overkill and leave Dallas in an even bigger hole as they look to create a championship-caliber defense to go with their offense.