The Jets decided against selling off auxiliary cogs at the trade deadline, opting instead to gut the core of their team by trading Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams in barely an hour. While the team collected three first-rounders and more from the Colts and Cowboys in those swaps, the current regime will be tasked with high-profile efforts to replace two All-Pros.
Williams fetched a 2026 second-round pick, a 2027 first and former Cowboys first-round defensive tackle Mazi Smith in the blockbuster deal. The Jets had discussed Williams with the Cowboys as part of the Micah Parsons trade, but no deal commenced then. Dallas circling back required the team to agree to a condition that could prove valuable for New York. The Jets will receive the higher of the Cowboys’ two first-round picks in the 2027 draft, one believed to be teeming with top-end talent.
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Competing with the Jaguars to land Williams, the Cowboys entered into serious trade talks with the Jets on Monday, ESPN’s Rich Cimini notes. The Jets were not a lock to deal Williams to the Jags had the Cowboys not upped the ante, as Gang Green needed to be “blown away” to give in on Williams’ trade push. The Cowboys giving the Jets the sweetener of having access to the higher of Dallas’ 2027 first-rounders finalized the trade, Cimini adds.
Months before Williams was dealt, he had made it known on multiple occasions he would like to be moved. The seventh-year veteran’s tweet about another rebuilding year being likely — a social media salvo launched after the team’s plans to release Aaron Rodgers became known — did not go over well with some in the organization, Cimini adds.
Williams later admitted a mistake there, but the three-time Pro Bowler made no secret about his frustration with the Jets’ losing ways. The Jets have not made the playoffs since 2010 — far and away the NFL’s longest-running drought — and Williams went 0-for-6 in .500 seasons as a Jet, with the team topping out at seven wins during his tenure. The Jets have won two straight, though they started 0-7 as Justin Fields struggled. The picks obtained in the Gardner and Williams deals figure to be aimed at acquiring a long-term quarterback answer.
The Jets had also used Williams more as a three-technique tackle in Aaron Glenn‘s scheme, after he had played more nose previously. While Williams’ snap percentage in the A-gap did not decline noticeably under Glenn, Cimini said the subtle position shift contributed to his unhappiness. Williams, 27, now joins Kenny Clark, Osa Odighizuwa and Solomon Thomas in a suddenly crowded Cowboys D-tackle corps.
Adding Williams does create a complication for a Cowboys team now carrying three $20MM DT salaries. The team plans on using all three when it uses five on-ball defenders, according to ESPN’s Dan Graziano. Though, only two will play when the team is using four down linemen.
The Cowboys are planning to be creative to get all three on the field at once, per Graziano, though it will be interesting to see the snap percentages when Williams, Clark and Odighizuwa share the field. The Cowboys believe Williams’ presence will also help a struggling sect of edge rushers draw more favorable matchups.
This NFL period has involved far more sub-package sets than base defenses, and teams do not make a habit of including DTs as edge rushers when in nickel. That adds more scrutiny to Dallas’ decision to trade two premium picks for Williams after already paying Odighizuwa (four years, $80MM) in March and then taking on Clark’s three-year, $64MM Packers extension in the Parsons trade.
Odighizuwa’s 2026 money is fully guaranteed, while Clark’s through-2027 contract does not have any guarantees beyond this season. Beyond Kirk Cousins, the Chiefs have the NFL’s most expensive backup (tackle Jaylon Moore, who is at $15MM per year). The Cowboys’ base 4-3 alignment figures to vault either Clark or Odighizuwa past Moore.
It would be odd for the Cowboys to bail on Clark after prioritizing him in the Parsons trade, but Dallas carrying three $20MM-per-year DTs — with Williams having previously pushed the Jets for a contract rework (and not yet receiving it) — to go with a $60MM-AAV quarterback (Dak Prescott) and $34MM-per-year wide receiver (CeeDee Lamb) will be a challenge. A Williams extension would reduce his 2026 cap number, slated to check in at $21.75MM.
The team may need to find another rookie-contract edge rusher, as the Parsons void remains at that position. Keeping its two 2026 first-rounders will help on that end, but for the time being, how Matt Eberflus deploys his three high-priced DTs during this season’s second half will be very interesting and perhaps prove telling about the team’s long-term plans.
