Stephen Jones: Cowboys won't be making any phone calls about in-season trades

To slightly twist the famous saying: “Call us; we won’t call you.”

That’s what the Cowboys are saying to the rest of the NFL.

Dallas looks to be down their two best defensive players for the short-term, and have a few obvious areas offensively where they could stand improvement. At 2-2, they’re not out of the running in the NFC by any means, but they definitely haven’t looked like a powerhouse who’ll simply cruise to a postseason berth with what they currently have.

But don’t expect the front office to be any more active in trade discussions around the league than they were in signing free agents over the offseason. In fact, the team’s No. 2 man in charge has now hinted that the Cowboys won’t be making any outgoing phone calls at all about any potential trades.

“I don’t know, this time of year, that anyone’s willing to trade their best players,” executive vice president Stephen Jones told K&C Masterpiece on 105.3 The Fan during an interview on Monday. “It’s just a work in progress. We’ll keep our lines of communications open around the league. And if something presents itself, then we’ll certainly look at it.”

We’ll keep our lines open…

If something presents itself…

Seems the Cowboys won’t be pulling a move similar to the 2018 midseason trade for wide receiver Amari Cooper. Whew. Good thing, because all that did was save a season that was headed down the toilet.

Dallas had just fallen to 3-4 with no real reason to hope for a turnaround when they surprised everyone by swapping a first-round draft pick for the then-two-time Pro Bowler. The team went 7-2 after his arrival and won the NFC East, with Cooper revitalizing his career and earning another Pro Bowl nod.

But this time, the most passive front office in the NFL is apparently content to sit back and not even inquire about any of the quality players who are stuck in bad situations or on legitimately awful (read: needy) teams.

Linebacker Micah Parsons is probably going to miss at least one game, probably two, and maybe more. Defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence is likely headed to injured reserve and could need four to eight weeks to recover.

Over the next eight weeks, the Cowboys face seven opponents, who (as of this writing) have a combined record of 17-10. Five of those teams made the postseason last year. It’s a gauntlet of teams who are either expected to be contenders or have already gotten off to a hot start.

With Lawrence gone, Parsons limited, no real threat at WR2 or WR3, and a foundering running back corps, there’s no telling what the Cowboys’ record might be at the end of that stretch.

But no need to make any real attempt to improve the roster, Jones is saying, because maybe something will just fall in our laps while we work on booking out AT&T Stadium for concerts and soccer matches and heavyweight fights and monster truck jams.

Don’t get us wrong; we’d like to win, sure. But not if we have to give up any draft picks for next year. We’re probably good enough to “hang around the rim” this season (and if not, we have our McScapegoat ready to take the fall) as soon as the season’s over.

They want to win. But more importantly, the Joneses want to do things their way.

And according to Stephen Jones’s way of thinking, any club looking to unload a quality player already knows that Dallas is open for business. Why give up the upper hand in negotiating by being the ones to initiate talks?

“It’s no secret to anyone in the league that we had two significant injuries in terms of Micah and D-Law,” Jones explained, “so people who might have an inkling to do something, I’m sure we’ll hear from them, but for the most part, I think no one’s willing to mail anything in right now.”

Except maybe the Cowboys.

Because they apparently won’t be making any phone calls.