The Cowboys are five days away from kicking off their 2026 regular season schedule, but don't assume that the 53-man roster as it exists right now is the way it's going to stay. The front office likes to say that talent acquisition is a 365-day-a-year endeavor... and in that regard, the Tuesday before the season opener is no different from any other day of football business.
In fact, owner Jerry Jones is hinting that the Cowboys still could have a major trade- or two- up their sleeve, even as the season begins to unfold.
"What's top of mind for me right now," Jones told Shan and RJ of 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday, "is getting the best team we can put on this field."
And that could mean spending some next year's draft capital early. The Cowboys currently
have five picks in 2027, but Jones says he wouldn't hesitate to trade some portion of that haul- even at the high end- for the right player right now.
"Not at all," he said plainly. "You want all the picks you can get, but this time of the year, what you're interested in is what you're doing with the picks that you used and what you might be able to do if you could add to bringing talent on the roster. We're still alive and well in that area."
Indeed, the team elected not to simply stand pat after culling the training camp roster down to 53. They did a late-August deal with Pittsburgh for former first-round lineman Broderick Jones, who is expected to compete for a starting role.
And then in the first few days of September, they restructured the contracts of DaRon Bland, Kenny Clark, and Jake Ferguson to create $30 million of cap space. Such financial maneuvering could certainly be an important step toward taking on a veteran player with a significant contract... maybe very soon.
"The timing is pretty conspicuously obvious," Jones acknowledged. "We could use it for this year's team. The cap is fungible, and it laps over into multi-years: at least two, conceivably three or four, on parts of any money that you make available. That's hard to put your finger on. But that does show that we have really viable, serious room financially to make a trade if we wanted to right now."
Jones has teased "substantive" talks with at least one other unnamed team since mid-summer. So is a deal for a blockbuster player imminent?
"The best way for me to answer that is not timing-wise, right on something this morning or this week," Jones said. "But if you look at it, generally speaking, we're in play. And that's the best way to describe it."
Jones explained that he is happy with the team's firepower on offense, pointing to strong and fairly deep groups at quarterback, running back, wide receiver, and tight end. And even with the late-breaking temporary loss of three-time Pro Bowler Tyler Smith, don't expect the Cowboys to make a panicked move to add any more beyond Jones at offensive line.
So that means he's looking at the other side of the ball.
"You could look for it to be defensively," Jones suggested. "Defense would be the place."
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This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Jerry Jones hints Cowboys eyeing another major trade: 'We're in play'
