Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said the team will not force a trade ahead of the 2025 deadline.
Jones clarified any potential trade must make sense for the team’s roster and financial plans.
Despite a better-than-expected start, Jones said the team’s performance won’t dictate their trade strategy.
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones implied shortly after trading Micah Parsons his team could use the assets acquired in that deal to trade for another immediate impact player.
But as the 2025 NFL trade deadline draws nearer, the 83-year-old clarified the Cowboys wouldn’t force a deal just for the sake of making one.
‘If there were a trade, it will be because it fits us,’ Jones said in a Tuesday, Oct. 21 appearance on 105.3 The Fan. ‘And to fit, it’s got to be a reason why the player would leave that we’re interested in going forward with, and it would have to fit us in terms of our plans on our roster, the financial and everything that goes with that.’
Jones’ comments come with the Cowboys off to a better-than-expected 3-3-1 start to the 2025 NFL season. Many anticipated the team would decline precipitously following the Parsons trade, but a stellar early-season showing from Dak Prescott and Dallas’ offense has the team firmly planted in the NFC wild-card picture.
That has led to rumors the Cowboys might be interested in adding talent to a defense that ranks 29th in defensive EPA per play while allowing the third-most points per game (29.4) through Week 7.
But Jones remained adamant that while the Cowboys will assess any and all possible deals, they would not let their current performance too much dictate their strategy on the trade market.
‘Just because we played well, all of a sudden everybody thinks, boy, you’re in the hunt, so it’s time to go out and gather up all of this talent that’s waiting around out here on the trees to add to it now that we feel good that we can be more competitive,’ Jones said. ‘That’s not realistic.
‘What’s realistic is that if we do see an opportunity, we are in as good a shape as we’ve been in in years with (draft) picks, with financial, with our (salary) cap,’ he added. ‘We’re in as good of shape as we’ve ever been if we see a way to improve our team with a player that makes sense today, this year, next year to entertain it and look at it.’
Jones also refused to preclude the Cowboys from trading away another player, though he conceded it wasn’t likely to happen.
If the Cowboys do acquire a player ahead of the 2025 NFL trade deadline, it would mark the second consecutive season the team makes such a move. Dallas acquired then-second-year receiver Jonathan Mingo and a 2025 seventh-round pick before the 2024 deadline from the Carolina Panthers in exchange for fourth-round selection.
Mingo has played just eight games for the Cowboys and logged five receptions for 46 yards.
