The New York Jets are trading off another top defensive player, and the Dallas Cowboys have added some much-needed defensive help.
Dallas has acquired star defensive tackle Quinnen Williams from New York, NFL Media first reported. The Cowboys will give the Jets a second-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft and a first-round pick in the 2027 NFL Draft, along with defensive tackle Mazi Smith, FOX Sports’ Jay Glazer reported. The 2027 first-round pick going to the Jets will be the highest pick between the Cowboys’ own first-round pick and the first-round pick they got in the Micah Parsons trade, ESPN reported.
The deal marks the second major trade the Jets have made ahead of Tuesday’s trade deadline. Roughly an hour before the news broke of the Williams trade, they agreed to ship out star cornerback Sauce Gardner to the Indianapolis Colts for two first-round picks. In total, the Jets acquired three first-round picks, a second-round pick, wide receiver Adonai Mitchell and Smith on Tuesday as of their deal with the Cowboys.
Of course, for the Cowboys, the trade comes just over two months after they surprisingly traded Parsons to the Green Bay Packers, greatly hurting their pass rush. They’re tied for 17th in sacks per game this season (2.2), while their total defense is second-to-last (397.4 yards allowed per game) and second-to-last in scoring defense (30.8 points allowed per game).
Dallas’ poor play on defense is a large reason why it’s 3-5-1 entering the second half of the season. The Cowboys’ playoff hopes also seem to be hanging by a thread, trailing the Philadelphia Eagles by 3.5 games for first place in the NFC East. They’re also 2.5 games back for the final wild-card spot in the NFC, with three teams sitting between the Cowboys and the seventh-seeded Detroit Lions.
Jets trade Quinnen Williams to Cowboys for a 1st-round pick
Still, Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones hinted that the team would be aggressive ahead of Tuesday’s trade deadline. He’s certainly lived up to his word, adding Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson in a trade earlier in the day.
The Cowboys have also been fans of Williams for quite a bit. They were talking to the Jets about Williams when they were trying to find a resolution to the contract stalemate with Parsons during training camp. Dallas got the Packers’ first-round picks in the next two drafts along with defensive tackle Kenny Clark instead.
The trade gives Dallas the potential for one of the best interior defensive lines in the league in Williams and Clark, who has been good for the Cowboys but hasn’t been able to reverse the club’s struggles in recent years to stop the run.
It remains to be seen how the addition of Williams will help the edge rushers who struggled badly early in the season without Parsons. The pressure has been better recently for the Cowboys, but mostly because of an increase in blitzing.
Williams was the third overall pick of the Jets in 2019 out of Alabama and has steadily developed into one of the NFL’s top interior defensive linemen.
An All-Pro in 2022 and a three-time Pro Bowl selection, Williams has 40 sacks and routinely drew double teams from opposing offensive lines that tried to neutralize him, but it also often helped open things up for other defenders. He’s got 32 total tackles, a sack and three forced fumbles this season. He’s also 17th among defensive tackles in pass rush win rate (10%), second in run stop win rate (47%) and 25th in pressures (19).
Williams signed a four-year, $96 million contract extension with the Jets, including $66 million guaranteed, in July 2023.
He and his older brother Quincy, a linebacker who was an All-Pro in 2023, had been teammates with the Jets since 2021.
With the Jets off to a rough start to the season, Williams said the defense — expected to be a strength — was largely to blame.
“When you are probably the worst defense in the league,” Williams said a few weeks ago, “no matter where you’re at, you’ve got to fix things if you want to win football games.”
Smith has been a disappointment in three seasons since the Cowboys drafted him 26th overall in the first round. He has alternated between playing and being a healthy scratch most of this season. He was inactive for the 27-17 loss to Arizona on Monday night.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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