CFZ Why are the Cowboys so reluctant to make trades the last decade?

[birdwells1]

Jerry doesn't know how to trade. His last good trade was Deion in 1995.

Deion was a free agent

 

[Verdict]

I find it interesting that the Cowboys are one of the least likely teams in the NFL to make trades. And when they do, it usually involves either a first round pick or a 6-7th round pick- almost never involves a player for player trade.

In the last decade, the Cowboys have made 22 trades, which is near the bottom of NFL teams making trades. I find that interesting. In the last decade, New England has made a whopping 67 trades, KC 40, and Balt 34. Making trades in and of itself doesn’t guarantee anything, but it does make me wonder why our FO is so reluctant to do them when for example we could really use a swing T.

Some other interesting aspect of our trade habits the last decade:

• Of the 22 trades we’ve made, 8 involved DL.
• Only 3 of those 22 trades involved a player for player swap.
• Of those 22 trades, 13 involved defensive players.
• The most common trade capital used has been 6th and 7th round picks.

Why are the Cowboys so reluctant to make a trade? With an obvious need at OL depth, and with some current depth at DL, wouldn’t it make sense to get some help via trade?

Thoughts?

I think the common denominator regarding the teams you have listed is that they are all winning (potential playoff) teams. They are trying to get over the hump with trades.

The Cowboys really haven’t been in that same conversation. So realistically the Cowboys have saved their draft capital for draft days.

Also, how many players do the Cowboys have that other teams want? We tend to overpay our own and hold on to them far too long.

It may be a reluctance to trade, as you suggest. But more precisely, teams may just not want our players. We do seem super reluctant to let players walk. I don’t understand that, but hey, it is what it is.

 

[Verdict]

The Cooper trade with the raiders wasn’t as bad as the Roy Williams trade with the lions. But yeah, the Jones boys are not exactly trade savvy.

We overpaid for Cooper. I would not have made that trade.

 

[Verdict]

The last time Jerry made a "splash" trade he got taken to the cleaners by the Detroit Lions. That's bound to give anyone pause.

Jerry got “bent” on the RW trade. Badly. Joey Galloway was just as bad.

 

[DandyDon52]

I find it interesting that the Cowboys are one of the least likely teams in the NFL to make trades. And when they do, it usually involves either a first round pick or a 6-7th round pick- almost never involves a player for player trade.

In the last decade, the Cowboys have made 22 trades, which is near the bottom of NFL teams making trades. I find that interesting. In the last decade, New England has made a whopping 67 trades, KC 40, and Balt 34. Making trades in and of itself doesn’t guarantee anything, but it does make me wonder why our FO is so reluctant to do them when for example we could really use a swing T.

Some other interesting aspect of our trade habits the last decade:

• Of the 22 trades we’ve made, 8 involved DL.
• Only 3 of those 22 trades involved a player for player swap.
• Of those 22 trades, 13 involved defensive players.
• The most common trade capital used has been 6th and 7th round picks.

Why are the Cowboys so reluctant to make a trade? With an obvious need at OL depth, and with some current depth at DL, wouldn’t it make sense to get some help via trade?

Thoughts?

Because in the past they have been really bad at it, The amari trade was the only one that worked out ok,and it wasnt really smart.
unless they hire a real gm, it is better that they dont trade.

 

[Dak_Attack_09]

A guy like Basham, Watkins or Fowler is going to cut. This is the year to trade for the WR or OL

You don’t cut Fowler.

 

[Diehardblues]

Specific to the Cowboys, I think Stephen Jones would make a trade if he believed they were really "1 player away". However, he saw too many failures of the "1 player away" approach by Jerry from 1996 up through the Brandon Carr free agent contract.

Stephen Jones started taking over as the "Acting GM" in 2014. He was the reason Will McClay was promoted to the top talent eval job that year.

Stephen completely took over once Garrett was gone. SJ hired McCarthy and McCarthy reports to him, whereas Garrett reported to Jerry.

Basically everything goes though SJ before it gets to Jerry.

I guess you forgot about Mikey’s sleep over with Jethro sealing the deal. And his meddling and undermining dictating Moore remaining. Yea, Daddy's out of the way. Right. Lol

While Son has taken a bigger role they must still still convince Daddy to go against his instincts. Regardless whatever we believe who’s in charge and the progress in team building and Mgmt of the team the results have been very similar thus far.

In the end Jethro is still the face of the franchise and the Cowboys greatest obstacle to overcome with the toxic atmosphere it creates as wearing multiple hats continues to be a conflict of interest running Cowboys Football.

 

[Kingofholland]

I find it interesting that the Cowboys are one of the least likely teams in the NFL to make trades. And when they do, it usually involves either a first round pick or a 6-7th round pick- almost never involves a player for player trade.

In the last decade, the Cowboys have made 22 trades, which is near the bottom of NFL teams making trades. I find that interesting. In the last decade, New England has made a whopping 67 trades, KC 40, and Balt 34. Making trades in and of itself doesn’t guarantee anything, but it does make me wonder why our FO is so reluctant to do them when for example we could really use a swing T.

Some other interesting aspect of our trade habits the last decade:

• Of the 22 trades we’ve made, 8 involved DL.
• Only 3 of those 22 trades involved a player for player swap.
• Of those 22 trades, 13 involved defensive players.
• The most common trade capital used has been 6th and 7th round picks.

Why are the Cowboys so reluctant to make a trade? With an obvious need at OL depth, and with some current depth at DL, wouldn’t it make sense to get some help via trade?

Thoughts?

Some of the bigger trades they've made for the 3 WRs ultimately didn't work out and may create some hesitancy in that approach. I'm definitely of the mindset that a lot of these players made available are on the trading block for a logical reason, either money, declining play, character concerns, etc. So I don't fault the Cowboys for not making splash trades, but there are definitely some trades you hear about and think for that capital it may have been worth taking a chance.

My biggest criticism of the Cowboys trade approach is not getting value for players they don't intend to keep, or recognizing a trade opportunity before it evaporates. Cowboys could have pulled in significant draft capital for a player like Byron Jones if they played their hand better with Dak and Amari at the time. Swapping Amari for a 1st to a 5th in a few years is remarkable. Signing players like Collins and Smith to contracts to jettison them within a couple years. I don't know about Jaylon, but Collins likely had some trade value at the time. I get that sometimes players decline rapidly and you may just need to move on from them, but we can be smarter with balancing contracts with trade opportunities.

 

[links18]

Because Stephen remembers his daddy's Roy Williams and Joey Galloway trades debacles and vows not to repeat them. Then again they traded for Cooper......

 

[Diehardblues]

Because in the past they have been really bad at it, The amari trade was the only one that worked out ok,and it wasnt really smart.
unless they hire a real gm, it is better that they dont trade.

This isn’t directed at you but prompt my response from reading thru others. I agree with your post.

Truth be told this era we really aren’t seeing the blockbuster trades in the NFL we used to.

Mostly it’s about trading big name players who teams don’t want to resign due to the Cap. Or the smaller less meaningful trades for lower round and conditional picks.

And if we want to be more critical of the Cowboys in regards to this it would be not getting better trades or value for these guys we end up releasing or don’t want to resign due to Cap.

 

[Bobhaze]

Some of the bigger trades they've made for the 3 WRs ultimately didn't work out and may create some hesitancy in that approach. I'm definitely of the mindset that a lot of these players made available are on the trading block for a logical reason, either money, declining play, character concerns, etc. So I don't fault the Cowboys for not making splash trades, but there are definitely some trades you hear about and think for that capital it may have been worth taking a chance.

My biggest criticism of the Cowboys trade approach is not getting value for players they don't intend to keep, or recognizing a trade opportunity before it evaporates. Cowboys could have pulled in significant draft capital for a player like Byron Jones if they played their hand better with Dak and Amari at the time. Swapping Amari for a 1st to a 5th in a few years is remarkable. Signing players like Collins and Smith to contracts to jettison them within a couple years. I don't know about Jaylon, but Collins likely had some trade value at the time. I get that sometimes players decline rapidly and you may just need to move on from them, but we can be smarter with balancing contracts with trade opportunities.

I agree with your comment about not getting value for players in a trade. Exhibit A is the pitiful Amari Cooper trade for a 5th rounder.

Yes Coop’s production has slipped some. But the main reason all they got was a 5th rounder was Stephen running his big mouth on the radio about how hard it was going to be to keep Coop with his salary and the Cowboys cap situation. They completely telegraphed they were getting rid of him. Instead of getting a 2nd or 3rd rounder, they got a 5th. All because they couldn’t keep their mouths shut. Just plain stupid.

 

[Floatyworm]

Wheeler dealer Jerry got old....and retired. He just hasn't left the building. Sadly...he just quit putting in the leg work necessary to have the information he needed to make a good deal.

 

[kskboys]

We overpaid for Cooper. I would not have made that trade.

It was a very bad trade. Kneejerk reaction, after a very very poor evaluation of what we had at WR going into the season.

 

[jazzcat22]

Maybe our front office isn't that great.

More like many fans don't know as much as they think they do, about the day to day operations of any professional team in any sports.

 

[kskboys]

Wheeler dealer Jerry got old....and retired. He just hasn't left the building. Sadly...he just quit putting in the leg work necessary to have the information he needed to make a good deal.

He never did put it in. Everything w/ him is just a kneejerk reaction, seat of his pants sort of stuff.

 

[jterrell]

I agree with your comment about not getting value for players in a trade. Exhibit A is the pitiful Amari Cooper trade for a 5th rounder.

Yes Coop’s production has slipped some. But the main reason all they got was a 5th rounder was Stephen running his big mouth on the radio about how hard it was going to be to keep Coop with his salary and the Cowboys cap situation. They completely telegraphed they were getting rid of him. Instead of getting a 2nd or 3rd rounder, they got a 5th. All because they couldn’t keep their mouths shut. Just plain stupid.

This take is popular but makes zero sense.
I dislike Stephen so not at all to defend him being goofy but the entire point of leaking the trade was to get better offers.
No one wanted to beat a 5th round pick.
Stephen was publicly begging for a 4th and couldn't get it.
Calling 10 teams or making a public statement have zero difference across the NFL front offices. It only matters to fans.

The issue was Dallas and Cooper were at reckoning. Amari didn't want to lower his cap number here without a raise/extension and Dallas didn't want to bring him back on a 20m a year deal.
Not a lot of teams were jumping to take that remaining 60M contract.
Coop at 3 years 60M was basically break even value.
Dallas getting a 5th wasn't bad business AT ALL.
But it was cheap business; moving actual talent for cap space.
It's what NE does every year.

 

[jterrell]

More like many fans don't know as much as they think they do, about the day to day operations of any professional team in any sports.

100000% this.
The players fans beg to trade for every year completely bomb at insane rates.
NFL scouting is quite good and generally teams know what they are trading away as well as what they getting.

CLE is supposed to be what genius in trading in Amari yet they also traded a fortune for and paid Deshaun Watson eating the bad pub, the cap hits and the 11-game suspension....

 

[kskboys]

More like many fans don't know as much as they think they do, about the day to day operations of any professional team in any sports.

No, not like that at all. These bozos have gone out of their way to show you how bad they are, if you don't see it it's purely because you don't want to.

Funny thing is, I used to believe as you did. Then I saw multiple heady posters showing much better decision making skills than Jerry. And it wasn't close. The final straw that broke the camel's back for me was the 09 draft. My gawd, I've never seen a dumber draft. 0 needs filled, players drafted had 0 chances of starting, everything about that draft made 0 sense.

That's when it hit me, the Jones boys were simply purely awful at player evaluations. Then you have to ask yourself why. And the answer is in one of Jerry's own statements. He does not watch player tapes, does not read evaluations, nothing. No prep work. There are guys on this site who do a ton more prep work than Jerry.

Jerry prolly knows more about day to day operations, sure, but that has nothing to do w/ player evaluations and team building. He knows nothing about those.

 

[Bobhaze]

This take is popular but makes zero sense.
I dislike Stephen so not at all to defend him being goofy but the entire point of leaking the trade was to get better offers.
No one wanted to beat a 5th round pick.
Stephen was publicly begging for a 4th and couldn't get it.
Calling 10 teams or making a public statement have zero difference across the NFL front offices. It only matters to fans.

The issue was Dallas and Cooper were at reckoning. Amari didn't want to lower his cap number here without a raise/extension and Dallas didn't want to bring him back on a 20m a year deal.
Not a lot of teams were jumping to take that remaining 60M contract.
Coop at 3 years 60M was basically break even value.
Dallas getting a 5th wasn't bad business AT ALL.
But it was cheap business; moving actual talent for cap space.
It's what NE does every year.

Well my friend, I disagree. By making it clear that Cooper was not in their future plans, teams knew his value was lessened. The Cowboys telegraphed their intentions.

What SJ should have done is act like Cooper was still a valued starter and was in their plans even though he wasn’t. That would disguise their real intentions. This off-season, multiple teams were looking for veteran WRs in a trade. Some garnered 1st round picks. Cooper’s play has certainly waned some, so getting a 1st rounder would’ve been hard. But maybe a 2nd or 3rd was plausible. Until SJ announced on his radio show that Coop wasn’t in their plans. After that we were lucky to get a 5th.

 

[kskboys]

100000% this.
The players fans beg to trade for every year completely bomb at insane rates.
NFL scouting is quite good and generally teams know what they are trading away as well as what they getting.

CLE is supposed to be what genius in trading in Amari yet they also traded a fortune for and paid Deshaun Watson eating the bad pub, the cap hits and the 11-game suspension....

You're paying attention to the wrong fans. No, casual fans could not run a team, not even close. All you hear from them is who we need to cut and that we need more WR's and CB's. However, there are a handful of fans on this site who could do a much better job than Jerry on player evaluations and team building. Jerry absolutely blows chunks at that aspect.