Inside The Star
This coming Tuesday afternoon, at 3 p.m. CST – don’t forget to set the clocks back an hour this weekend – the NFL trade deadline will strike.
After the Dallas Cowboys dismantled Washington two weeks ago, the assumption was that the Cowboys would be buyers.
Sunday’s drubbing in Denver swung the needle in the opposite direction. And then some.
At roughly the midway point of the 2025 season, Dallas sits at 3-4-1.
They trail the Eagles by 2.5 games for the NFC East lead. The Cowboys are currently 1.5 games back of the 49ers for the final NFC wildcard slot.
Which begs the question:
Are the Cowboys still in the hunt for either the division or a playoff spot?
The answer to that question is huge. Because that answer will dictate whether the Cowboys should be buyers or sellers this weekend.
On offense, the Cowboys appear to have enough weapons to put points on the board. We already know that the special teams unit is rock solid too.
But the glaring holes in the roster are all on defense.
And there are far too many of them for anyone to feel too comfortable.
Even Jerry Jones himself acknowledges the issues with the defense cannot be fixed with just one single trade. They have no consistent pass rush.
This comes from trading away your top defender, who just so happens to have 6.5 sacks this year up in Green Bay.
The reasoning for moving Micah Parsons was that the move would fix the run defense.
The Cowboys run defense couldn’t stop a dead turtle from gaining 100 yards against it.
The linebackers aren’t getting it done. DeMarvion Overshown probably doesn’t play until the Eagles game on the Sunday before Thanksgiving.
Nor is there any way to know how well he’ll be able to play when he does come back.
The defensive backs…ugh. Enough said.
Dallas has upcoming games against the Cardinals on Monday night, less than 24 hours before the deadline, then a bye followed by a game in Las Vegas against the Raiders.
Going 2-0 is not guaranteed, despite the teams’ records. The Cardinals have won the last three meetings, and seven of the last eight, against the Cowboys.
Splitting the next two games would put Dallas at 4-5-1 with games against the Eagles, Chiefs, Lions, Vikings, Chargers, Commanders, and Giants.
Going 3–4 during that stretch is the most likely scenario as things stand now. That puts the Cowboys at 7-9-1 at the end of the year and missing the playoffs.
There doesn’t appear to be any combination of trades out there that would change this outcome.
The Cowboys need to be sellers. They cannot be drunk on “Hopium” regarding the 2025 season.
This team simply isn’t good enough overall to make the playoffs.
And if, by some miracle, they snuck in as the final wildcard, they would get pounded in the first round.
Rather than burn the two first...
