FRISCO, Texas — Hours before Tuesday’s 3 p.m. CT NFL trade deadline, Jerry Jones said he does not expect the Dallas Cowboys to make a significant trade. The Cowboys owner and general manager made his weekly Tuesday appearance on 105.3 The Fan’s Shan & RJ show and said the phones at The Star have not been ringing.
The Cowboys (4-5) are coming off a 27-23 win over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium. Their only in-season trade came Oct. 1, when Dallas acquired cornerback Joey Porter Jr. from the Pittsburgh Steelers for a 2028 second-round pick and a 2027 sixth-round pick.
Jones borrowed a line from an old country song to describe the quiet, and said a silent phone is usually when a deal comes together.
“You know that old country song, when that phone’s not ringing, that’s me calling,” Jones 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.”
Two days earlier, Jones said on the station’s pregame show that “at this point, I don’t see it” when it came to a deadline move, according to the team’s website. Cowboys COO Stephen Jones told the station Monday that it was “pretty quiet on our front.”
Jones did say the Cowboys will add a running back Tuesday, probably through free agency, with Tyler Goodson out multiple weeks with a knee injury.
Jerry Jones Says No Meaningful Trade Dialogue
How much the 4-5 start is weighing on the deadline approach is something Jones could not put a number on. The front office has not had the chance to work through it with the team.
“I don’t know. I don’t. I can’t answer that. I don’t know,” Jones said. “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.”
Dallas was a buyer at last year’s deadline. The Cowboys sent a first-round pick, a second-round pick, and defensive tackle Mazi Smith to the New York Jets for Quinnen Williams just over a year ago.
The Cowboys trail the New York Giants by three games in the loss column in the NFC East, The Associated Press’ Schuyler Dixon reported. Eight games remain on the schedule.
Secondary Hit Hardest By Injury
A critic could ask for more rush, more pressure, and more help in the flat, but Jones would not name a single defensive position as a glaring need. He pointed instead to injuries at linebacker and in the secondary.
“Really, if I look at where we’re progressing on the defensive side of the ball, where we really have some encouragement coming, I wouldn’t name a position at all,” Jones said. “I’m sure a critic could look at it and say, ‘How about a little more rush? How about a little more pressure? How about a little more help in the flat?’ But overall, I would say that we’ve had our depletion from injuries.”
“We’ve had it at linebacker, and we’ve had it in the secondary,” Jones continued. “I’m pretty pleased with what we’ve done on the interior of our line, and I like the options we have at pass rush. We’re getting some pass rush. It’s paying off in secondary positives, but we are getting some pass rushes. But to be realistic about it, probably in the secondary would be the place that we’ve been hit the hardest by injury. But we do have Porter, and we do have that we’ve traded for that are dynamic contributions when they get on the field.”
Safety P.J. Locke sustained his second concussion in as many weeks at Indianapolis and has been ruled out for Sunday. Safety Jalen Thompson has been on injured reserve with a hamstring injury since Sept. 30. Porter missed the Colts game with a foot and ankle injury.
Jones ended the segment by acknowledging his answers had not given away a target.
“I know that was a mouthful,” Jones said. “Now figure out what you really wanted to find out, what we might trade for today. You couldn’t do it from that, but the truth is, I really don’t know.”
The Cowboys host the San Francisco 49ers (7-1) on Sunday at AT&T Stadium. Kickoff is set for 3:25 p.m. CT on FOX.
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