"The best way for me to answer that is not timing wise, right on something this morning or this week, but if you look at it generally speaking, we're in play," Jones said Tuesday on 105.3 The Fan, when asked whether the "substantive" trade talks he'd hinted at during training camp were still ongoing.
Jones made clear where he expects any move to come from. "You could look for it to be defensively," he said. "You could more than likely see depth on defense. Defense would be the place."
Financial Move That Wasn't A Coincidence
Jones' comments came just days after Dallas restructured three contracts, defensive tackle Kenny Clark, cornerback DaRon Bland, and tight end Jake Ferguson, freeing up roughly $19 million in additional cap space.
Combined with what the Cowboys already had on the books, that puts Dallas somewhere between $33 million and $35 million in space, an enormous number compared to the $8 to $10 million most teams typically operate with during the season.
Jones didn't dodge the connection. "The timing is conspicuously obvious," he said. "But yeah, we could use it for this year's team. The cap is fungible, it laps over into multi-years... but that does show that we have really viable, serious room financially to make a trade if we wanted to right now."
Maxx Crosby's Name Won't Go Away
The Cowboys already made one run at a star pass rusher this offseason.
Dallas pursued Las Vegas Raiders edge Maxx Crosby before the Baltimore Ravens ultimately acquired him, only for that trade to collapse when Crosby failed his physical. Crosby has since publicly recommitted to the Raiders, making an immediate reunion unlikely.
But, acquiring him would require roughly $29.8 million in cap space to execute the trade, a threshold Dallas has now comfortably cleared with room to spare.
If Las Vegas struggles and Crosby's name resurfaces in trade rumors again, the Cowboys are positioned to make a run without needing to create any additional room.
