Is a big trade coming for the Dallas Cowboys? Jerry Jones says he’s working on it – Nick Harris, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
The Dallas Cowboys sound like they’re working behind the scenes on making the team better.
Less than 10 minutes later, Jones was asked about his urgency to win compared to trusting the process of having a lot of change on the defensive side of the ball, and he answered with a major headline that will dominate the early news cycles of the team’s training camp.
“Candidly, I’d be very interested to give up future to add substantive to where we are today,” Jones said. “Would I invest something substantive to get
the right kind of deal to improve us opening day? I would. I feel that good about this team this year.”
Jones hasn’t been a stranger to big trades in the past 18 months. The team has acquired wide receiver George Pickens, defensive tackle Quinnen Williams and defensive tackle Kenny Clark in megadeals since the start of the 2025 calendar year, and he is making it publicly known that he is open to continuing that trend.
He also made it known that the phone lines are actively being worked.
“Yesterday, I talked about a situation with another team, another owner,” Jones said. “Yesterday.”
Speaking with a group of reporters after the press conference, Jones was asked if the conversation he had with the mystery owner was heading in the right direction.
“No, I wouldn’t classify it like that,” he said. “It was a very legitimate discussion, but I wouldn’t give it a direction.”
While the team and the player(s) at the core of the discussion remain unknown, Jones was asked directly about Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby a few moments later. The Cowboys were known to be deep in the mix for the five-time Pro Bowler when he was shopped by the Raiders this offseason, but after the deal with the Baltimore Ravens fell through due to a failed physical, his market cooled.
However, Jones made sure to emphasize that the Cowboys still remained interested even after news around the injury arose prior to the draft.
Jerry Jones confident Cowboys can compete for a Super Bowl in 2026 – Tommy Yarrish, DallasCowboys.com
The optimism for Jerry Jones seems as high as ever about his 2026 squad.
From a media perspective, the term “quiet offseason” has been used plenty recently, with quiet being relative to the noise around ongoing contract negotiations when the Cowboys arrive on the west coast. For Cowboys owner/GM Jerry Jones, the past few months have been far from quiet in his world.
“I like the idea that the word is that we have had a quiet offseason, relative to dare I say off the field noise or chatter,” Jones said. “I like that, that hasn’t been the case. We’ve had a lot going on. We’ve had to really scramble a lot, the kind of stuff that you don’t see. But that should be that way, it’s supposed to be hard… We even did more than I could have anticipated when we started. I personally like the fact that the perception is that it’s been a quiet, non-confrontational offseason. That’s good.”
That doesn’t mean Dallas will be out of headlines or not engaging in contract negotiations while in Oxnard. Jones mentioned several times that he’d be willing to trade high-level draft capital to supplement his roster, and COO/co-owner Stephen Jones said Dallas was “absolutely” willing to engage in extension talks with Pro Bowl defensive tackle Quinnen Williams.
A lot of the work during the offseason has gone towards rebuilding the defense, which was one of the worst units in franchise history last season and allowed over 30 points per game. With a new defensive coordinator in Christian Parker, the potential to have as many as seven new starters and a new defensive coaching staff, Dallas will need to the find the balance between integrating all the new elements of the team and competing right away.
“We don’t have any alternative,” Jones said. “We made that bed when we brought in new scheme, new coaches, new players. We’re going with new right there. I’ve bought into that, that’s going to happen, we’re here. Now, in dealing with it, we’ve got to start out here right now doing as best we can and bringing that thing to opening day.”
Stephen Jones: Cowboys interested in Quinnen Williams extension – RJ Ochoa, Blogging the Boys
The Cowboys getting a contract extension done with Quinnen Williams would be a huge boost this offseason.
The Dallas Cowboys held court on Tuesday for their press conference to start training camp in Oxnard, and as they did matters are officially underway.
The opening presser is a tradition for the team at training camp, and to a lesser degree so is an extension for one of the team’s players while the team is in California. Everyone being together in a tighter compound just seems to be a recipe for deals to get done, and the subject of a particular one coming together came up.
Stephen Jones noted that the Cowboys have held discussions with Quinnen Williams’ agent about the process of a hypothetical extension. He noted before he said that the team is quite invested in Williams which is the case as they executed a trade deadline deal to acquire him last season.
On some level this gives Williams a bit of leverage. His representation knows that the Cowboys traded what they did for him so they are pot committed on some level. It doesn’t help that the defensive tackle market is on the rise at the moment, consider that about an hour before Stephen said this that the Philadelphia Eagles gave Jalen Carter a four-year, $152M extension. That is the new going rate.
Training camp has just begun so perhaps a deal will come together. Williams is the only player of note who the Cowboys have to work with on something like this at the moment, keep in mind that George Pickens is playing on the franchise tag and as we are past the July 15th the team and he can literally not negotiate a new deal until the season is over.
Credit Jerry Jones and George Pickens for the rare quiet Dallas Cowboys offseason – Joseph Hoyt, Dallas Morning News
For better or worse, give a pat on the back to Jerry Jones and George Pickens for keeping things amicable this training camp.
Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens traveled with the team Monday to California. Pickens said at mandatory minicamp — when he showed up for that, too — that he planned to participate in training camp despite receiving the franchise tag. He explicitly said he would not do a hold in and go to practice but not participate. As of Tuesday afternoon, there’s been no indication that Pickens plans to change his mind.
That one-year, $27.3 million deal without the potential for an extension appears good enough for him.
It’s not out of the question things could’ve been different, even if it was always unlikely. This is the same Pickens, after all, who was traded from Pittsburgh shortly after former Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin declared that he needed to grow up. This is the same Pickens who was prolific last season in a breakout year, finishing with career highs in every major receiving category, despite being fined multiple times for being late to meetings or for missing the team bus on the way to the road game against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Despite that reputation, the Cowboys, led by head coach Brian Schottenheimer, have preached Pickens’ love for the sport and for how things went on the field last year with the Cowboys. Ultimately, Pickens proved them right with how he handled the franchise tag.
For what it’s worth: Jones appreciates it.
“The way we have worked this out is the way it fit. I’m proud that he will work it that way. I’m proud that he will,” Jones replied after the first Pickens question, which was asked 25 minutes and 30 seconds into Tuesday’s news conference. “I hope that he comes out here and is the most prolific, successful receiver in the NFL this year. Now, how would you like to be a free agent with his credentials and step out there and have a year like that? I wish all of that, because if that happens, then that was good for us and we did it the way we thought was best for everybody concerned.”
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