Cowboys owner and General Manager Jerry Jones says his phone line is open for any team wanting to talk trade, but he probably won’t be the one making the calls.
Jones confirmed that the Cowboys have received calls from teams interested in making draft-day trades, but when asked if he would make any calls to seek a trade, he indicated that’s not where his head is.
“I don’t know that. I don’t know that,” Jones said.
Why wouldn’t Jones be the one to initiate trade talks? He said he usually gets better deals from teams that make the call first.
“They’re usually better, candidly, coming in than going out. The results are better for us,” Jones said.
The Cowboys own the 12th and 20th picks during Thursday night’s first round, but their third pick doesn’t come until No. 92, late in the third round. They might like to move down from one of those first-round picks to add something in the second or third round. Jones will certainly listen if other GMs call him about that.
The Cowboys won’t negotiate with George Pickens in 2026, forcing him to play on the franchise tag. That isn’t likely to make the Pro Bowl wide receiver happy.
A trade, followed quickly by a long-term contract, would.
The Cowboys need defensive help in the worst way to improve a unit that ranked last in the NFL in surrendering a team-record 511 points. And they have two first-round draft picks to help the defense in a big way.
Surely they wouldn’t consider using one on an offense that ranked second in yards and seventh in points. Right?
“That’s alive and well. Given the right circumstances, you have to look at offense,” Jerry Jones said, via Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
In 2020, CeeDee Lamb slid to 17th, and the Cowboys, despite needing defensive help, selected the Oklahoma wide receiver. Lamb is a better player than any of the first-round defensive players drafted after the Cowboys’ pick that year. Only Patrick Queen has made a Pro Bowl among that group of defenders.
The Cowboys have the 12th and 20th selections this year. They had Arizona State wide receiver Jordyn Tyson and Ohio State wide receiver Carnell Tate among their top-30 pre-draft visitors.
Executive vice president Stephen Jones was asked how the decision not to reward Pickens with a long-term deal affects the Cowboys’ draft strategy.
“That’s all part of the global picture,” Stephen Jones said, via Schuyler Dixon of the Associated Press. “Certainly, you’re always looking at that. It’s just like we did when we took CeeDee Lamb. We had some really good receivers on this team, but we took him. It would certainly be no different as we look at the board and our number gets called to pick, and we’ll make that decision at that point. We’re certainly not opposed to taking the best player on our board. That’s usually where we’ve had our most success is doing that. As Jerry said, we were all set to go defense in that particular draft and CeeDee Lamb was sitting there and that’s the guy we went with. It’s turned out to be a great selection for us.”
Stephen Jones would not address whether the team would give Pickens a head’s up if it decides to pick a wide receiver.
“We don’t want to get into the weeds like that today,” he said. “We’ll have a lot of options, and we’ll obviously address those types of situations if they happen to come about. Certainly we go over all our contingencies and how we would handle something or what we would do. But to get into the detail of that, I don’t think it’s productive today.”
Bill Clinton and Jerry Jones go way back to their days in Arkansas.
The former president crashed the Cowboys owner’s pre-draft news conference on Wednesday, appearing to surprise Jones.
A reporter was in the middle of a question when Jones saw Clinton entering The Star, the team’s training facility, according to Schuyler Dixon of the Associated Press. The reporter attempted to finish the question as Clinton came through a side door into the interview room.
“I’m negotiating the draft,” Clinton said with a smile.
Jones stumbled as he exited the stage to shake hands with the 42nd U.S. president, but steadied himself before falling.
“He’s been a wonderful, not only president, but a friend over the years,” Jones said before exiting with Clinton, “and I’m really happy to have you here today.”
Executive vice president Stephen Jones and coach Brian Schottenheimer finished the news conference.
The Dallas Cowboys always have a plan. Even when the plan is there ain’t no plan.
After giving up a third-round pick last year for receiver George Pickens, the Cowboys had no plan to turn the remainder of his contract into a fair long-term deal, if he performed at a high level. (He did.) Instead, the apparent plan was to employ him at a salary of $3.65 million in 2025 and, if he has a big year, to take full advantage of the franchise tag in 2026.
The market for receivers dramatically outpaces the franchise tag, by nearly $15 million per year. And so, in lieu of giving Pickens the contract he has earned, the Cowboys will hide behind the CBA provision that allows them to pay Pickens $27.298 million in 2026 — even though the market has recently moved to $42.15 million per year, thanks to the Jaxon Smith-Njigba deal.
Cowboys executive Stephen Jones confirmed that plan during a pre-draft press conference on Wednesday.
“There won’t be negotiations on a long-term deal,” Jones said, via Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
Jones added, via Todd Archer of ESPN, that the team has no assurances as to when or if he’ll show up for the offseason program. Until he accepts the franchise tender, he’s not under contract. He can skip all of the offseason, all of training camp, and all of the preseason. He can show up just before the start of the regular season and make the full $27.298 million.
And then, next year, the Cowboys can tag him again. At a 20-percent increase over his 2026 salary: $33.576 million. Which is still well below market value.
This means that the Cowboys can keep Pickens for two years at a total payout of $60.874 million. It delays Pickens’s long-term security by two full seasons, forcing him to stay healthy and to continue to play at a high level before earning a shot at the open market. (The Cowboys could then tag him a third time, but it would be far more expensive.)
The approach reduces Pickens to a business transaction. It doesn’t take into account whether the player will be happy. Or whether he will believe he’s being treated fairly.
The position quite possibly is influenced by Pickens’s reluctance to talk to the Cowboys without the involvement of an agent. They love to cut out the agents, because the agents can get a much better deal than the players will get alone.
It would be foolish to think that the link between Pickens and Micah Parsons, who is represented by the same agent, didn’t influence the decision.
The bottom-line message to Pickens becomes, essentially, “Tough shit. The CBA lets us do this. And we’re going to do it.”
His only option is to not play. Or to sign the one-year tender and not go all out, missing games due to injuries that would allow him to play if he had a proper long-term deal.
Even after the window for a long-term deal closes on July 15, the Cowboys could pay him more than the amount of the tag for 2026. They may have to decide whether they want to do that.
If they want to get the best out of Pickens, that would be the least they’d do. Ideally, they’d regard the situation as a good problem to have and they’d get him signed.
With two first-round draft picks — No. 12 and No. 20 — the Cowboys could be a popular trade partner for teams looking to trade up. There’s also a possibility they try to trade up to get a top defender for a unit that allowed a franchise-record 511 points last season.
Jerry Jones confirmed on Wednesday that the Cowboys have already started getting calls from other teams.
“We look at both [trading up or trading down],” Jones said, via K.D. Drummond of USA Today. “There’s every type of trade possible. Players on other rosters, draft picks, all of that is in play.”
Executive vice president Stephen Jones said there is “nothing concrete” right now, which is as expected. The phones in the Cowboys’ draft room are sure to ring on Thursday night as the 12th overall pick approaches.
“You could imagine making a call right now and making a trade. Picks or players,” Jerry Jones said. “That hasn’t usually been our experience. . . . [But] the nature of having extra picks in that first round gives more credence to some options. And one that would be up or down.”
Jerry Jones added that receiving calls is better than making calls because “the results are better.”
