ARLINGTON, Texas — Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones didn’t shut the door on a potential trade for Las Vegas Raiders edge rusher Maxx Crosby, but he indicated the team’s offseason plans are already set without him.
Speaking Thursday at an event promoting an IndyCar street race near AT&T Stadium, Jones said the Cowboys are “pretty far down the road” in free agency and don’t anticipate revisiting talks for Crosby. “While I don’t anticipate it, I don’t want to rule anything out,” Jones said.
The Cowboys were among the teams interested in Crosby before the Baltimore Ravens agreed to send two first-round picks to the Raiders for the two-time Pro Bowler. That deal fell through a day before it could become official. Dallas instead acquired edge rusher Rashan Gary from the Green Bay Packers for a 2027 fourth-round pick on the first day of free agency.
Gary, 28, recorded 7.5 sacks last season but none after Week 10. He spent his first seven seasons in Green Bay, where he and Micah Parsons — traded from Dallas to the Packers for two first-rounders before last season — essentially swapped teams. “He was able to reach out to me, I was able text him back,” Gary said. “But I have yet to be able to really have a conversation with him. At the end of the day, it’s a business.”
Dallas is overhauling a defense that ranked among the NFL’s worst in 2025. The club hired Christian Parker as defensive coordinator, switching to a 3-4 base scheme. The Cowboys added safeties Jalen Thompson (six seasons with Arizona) and P.J. Locke in free agency, and traded defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa to the San Francisco 49ers for a third-round pick. Odighizuwa, a third-round pick in 2021, signed an $80 million extension last year before negotiations with Parsons soured.
The Parsons trade brought defensive tackle Kenny Clark to Dallas, and the Cowboys used one of the first-round picks from that deal to acquire Quinnen Williams from the New York Jets. With three defensive tackles carrying average annual values of at least $20 million, the shift to a 3-4 created a logjam, prompting the Odighizuwa trade.
Jones also cited salary cap constraints, noting the need to “spread it around a little bit” after placing the $27.3 million franchise tag on receiver George Pickens. The Cowboys have until July 15 to reach a long-term deal with Pickens, CeeDee Lamb’s sidekick.
Dallas has two first-round picks but no fourth-rounder after the Odighizuwa trade. The team also released quarterback Will Grier and signed Sam Howell to compete with Joe Milton for the backup job behind Dak Prescott. Defensive end Solomon Thomas was traded to the Tennessee Titans in a deal involving a seventh-round pick swap.
“I feel very good about it,” Jones said of the defense. “We have nowhere but up to go on defense. … We’ll almost assuredly be much better.”
