Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones appears to be coming around to reality when it comes to his struggling defense.
The Cowboys’ poor defense was under the microscope again following Sunday’s 44-24 loss to the Denver Broncos at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colo. Jones was again asked if trades might be on the table to improve the unit, but he admitted that he might not be able to make enough moves to salvage the situation.
“I don’t know what’s realistic,” Jones said, via Tommy Yarrish of the Cowboys’ official website. “Could one better player if we didn’t pay too big a price to have a better player on defense? Could it possibly help? I’m not trying to be cute, that’s why you’d go get it, is that you’d think it could help your defense.
“Are we one player away on defense? I think we’re not, I think we’re more than that away, but we’re closer to than it looks in my mind, is executing better on defense.”
Jones has seemingly been in denial about his defense for most of the season, starting from the time he traded Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers. Since then, Jones has accepted that the team needs some help on defense, albeit not in the pass rush.
Jones may well be correct that the Cowboys are more than one player away from having a capable defense. The team’s run-stopping is still bad, and injuries are piling up in their secondary. They have given up at least 30 points in five of their eight games this season, and Sunday was the second time an opponent has hung 40 on them.
The Cowboys have the draft picks to improve if they wanted to trade them. The simple reality, however, is that it might not be worth it at this point if the defense is this bad.
