OCTOBER 3: During an appearance on San Antonio Sports Star, Cowboys EVP Stephen Jones confirmed an Adams pursuit will not be taking place (h/t Jon Machota of The Athletic). With Lamb on the books and Parsons in need of an extension next offseason, taking on Adams’ deal and agreeing to a restructure would be challenging. Adams’ preference is the Jets anyway, and the Raiders will likely have stronger offers than what Dallas would have been willing to make.
OCTOBER 2: In the hours since the Davante Adams trade rumors began to swirl, the Cowboys emerged as a team that inquired about the standout Raiders wide receiver. While that may well be true, Dallas does not appear a serious player.
The Cowboys are not expected to pursue an Adams trade, with All City DLLS’ Clarence Hill going as far as to indicate the team has shown “no interest” in the 11th-year receiver. This comes after the team shot down interest in acquiring a running back or defensive end via trade.
Dallas received strong value from its 2018 trade with Oakland for Amari Cooper, who helped the ’18 Cowboys edition craft a second-half turnaround to the playoffs and stayed through the 2021 season. The Cowboys bailed on Cooper’s five-year contract, dealing it to the Browns, but have been searching for WR help since. Although CeeDee Lamb has soared onto the All-Pro tier post-Cooper, the Cowboys have not possessed too much depth at the position since that swap.
An Adams trade would reunite him with Mike McCarthy, the Packers’ HC for the first four-plus seasons of the All-Pro’s career. The Packers employed McCarthy as HC when they extended Adams in 2017, though his jump onto the All-Pro level came during Matt LaFleur‘s tenure. Adams played as a third wheel behind Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb to start his career but began to ascend in the late 2010s. McCarthy’s current team is not set to be the destination for Adams’ late prime.
This Adams news comes shortly after Brandin Cooks was ruled out for Week 5; the player the Cowboys eventually settled on to replace Cooper is battling a knee injury stemming from an infection. Cooks has not provided the Cowboys with the level of play he reached at his previous four stops, but he has been sporadically effective. The Cowboys have used 2022 third-rounder Jalen Tolbert more this season as well; the South Alabama alum has played 75% of Dallas’ offensive snaps. With Cooks out for the time being, Tolbert will continue to see regular usage. McCarthy said Wednesday he is comfortable with his in-house options at WR, though the fifth-year Dallas HC cannot exactly say he wants Adams in Dallas due to the NFL’s tampering policy.
It cost the Cowboys a first-round pick to acquire Cooper in 2018; Adams may be moved for a second-rounder (or less) due to his age (32 in December) and contract status. Adams is tied to a prorated $16.9MM base salary. Though, the Raiders can follow some recent teams by picking up some of Adams’ tab to increase trade compensation. Two nonguaranteed years remain on Adams’ extension, though the Cowboys just handed out two top-market deals and have another (Micah Parsons‘) on the horizon. Regardless, it appears the Cowboys will not be part of this conversation.
For once, no move is the right move and they actually made the right move.
Jerry loves his big name flashy WR. Already has 2 he can’t get the ball to enough, plus they are 2-2 with the league’s worst rushing attack in terms of yards, a bottom-five rush defense, and a mediocre pass defense.
If only Adams was a RB
I don’t see a match here at all. If you already have a #1, it doesn’t make sense to pay #1 money to a #2 option,
The Cowboys desperately need a RB. Although, idk, I find it crazy, because the league is absolutely loaded with talented RBs, yet Dallas doesn’t have a single starting caliber one on their roster.
Certainly they could find someone to fit their scheme for a 4th-5th Round pick at some point this season. The fact they still haven’t addressed this weakness of theirs would be extremely disheartening and frustrating if I were a Cowboys fan.
Dallas also needs to improve their toughness on defense, and they also need to make at least one move at each level of their defense. They could really see some significant improvements if they target the right players to fit their scheme, but they need some size and guys that aren’t afraid to stick their nose in plays, get dirty, and don’t miss tackles.
They have plenty of opportunistic guys, and those players are great when they’re surrounded by the guys I just described. If not, they just end up taking unnecessary risks, allowing big plays, and missing tackles.
The Cowboys have some big holes to fill, but they could significantly improve this defense with only a couple of very well thought out additions. There are veteran glue guys that are always available for 4th-6th round picks. Dallas is just going to have to first admit they are flawed from a personnel standpoint, and then get some of those deals done.
If Dallas goes the rest of this season without making a RB addition and without adding at least two veteran pieces to their defense, then they’re very likely to either miss the playoffs or be one and done YET AGAIN!!
The Cowboys thinking would be along the lines of “Why pursue Adams when we can just wait for the next OBJ sweepstakes?”
This is nothing more that Jerra driving up the price for Adams and getting his Cowboys some headlines.
A bidding war between two teams is OK, but add the perception of a third and possibly a four team… The bigger the player, the bigger the trade, the bigger the headline, the better for the NFL and it’s owners.
Adams will go to New Orleans. They need Shaheed for returns and stretching the field.
Repeat after me:
“Running Back. If we even make it to the playoffs, it’ll be pointless without a RUNNING BACK”
We now return you to your regular program
I agree, but who are they going after?
ARI: Emari Demercado
DET: Craig Reynolds
CLE is getting Chubb back so D’Onta Foreman could be available
GB: AJ Dillion
MIA: Jeff Wilson Jr.
If JAX goes 0-6 maybe they would be willing to part with Travis Etienne
I am just putting some names out there, I have no idea who they think can help them at this point. They should have grabbed a guy during free agency but they ended up with a Cooked Dalvin Cook sitting on the side line.
Thanks for reading.
The Jets drafted Israel Abanikanda in the fourth round last year and he has good college tape and excellent testing numbers, but they buried him in the depth chart this year. Might be nothing, but might be worth trading the smallest possible amount of draft capital for him.