Jerry Jones gives update on possible Cowboys trade, reacts to loss to Giants

Following the Dallas Cowboys' 28-20 Week 1 loss at the New York Giants, Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said that "we just probably had a little unrealistic expectations in terms of what we could do, especially on the defensive side of the ball with all the new faces and a brand new coordinator."

Some had previously linked the Cowboys with unsettled Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr., even though the Steelers reportedly don't want to trade him. During a Tuesday appearance on Dallas sports radio station 105.3 The Fan, Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones was asked if he is already thinking about looking for some outside help. 

Cowboys won't make a move that Jerry Jones thinks is "not practical"

"You temper that with availability of making moves on outside help for the roster," Jerry Jones said, per Tommy Yarrish of the club's website. "If you wanted to, this is a narrow window of making changes on a roster at this date. You don't have a lot of moving around relative to where you were at other parts of the year. It's not something that you come in and say, 'We're going to reshuffle this deck' after your first game. That's not practical." 

At least one unnamed personnel executive suggested that first-year Cowboys defensive coordinator Christian Parker looked like "an intern calling plays on defense" as Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart completed 23-of-29 passes for 230 yards and three touchdowns. The Giants rushed for 165 yards against Dallas. 

"Communication," Jerry Jones said about what bothered him the most about what he saw from the Dallas defense at MetLife Stadium, per the Cowboys' website. "The communication aspects of it. Just being out of position. ...I was taken aback that the physicalness of it wasn't more obvious. We had some guys play hard, and we had some guys do some good things on both sides of the ball, offense and defense. But I was really surprised and dismayed, as all fans were, that we couldn't basically stop some of that outside stuff."

Jerry Jones isn't panicking about 2026 Cowboys for this reason

Following Sunday's loss, Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer said that he felt the interception quarterback Dak Prescott tossed when the game was tied at 7-7 with under a minute to play in the first half "was a big momentum swing." After that turnover, the Giants drove down the field to take a 14-7 lead into halftime, and they then produced a touchdown drive to start the second half. 

According to Jon Machota of The Athletic, Jery Jones echoed Schottenheimer's take and said he felt that pick was "definitely the turning point in the game." Jones also explained why he isn't pressing a figurative panic button quite yet. 

"The two teams that played in the Super Bowl last year, they both lost their opening game," Jones added. "Both of them evolved as the season went along. I've lost the first game (1993) and won the Super Bowl. The first game for this team was unquestionably important. Don't get it wrong. ... But we (have to) keep in place where we're trying to go with this group. I saw nothing on review yesterday that tells us that we should depart away from the plan that we've got about getting better on defense that we've been (working on) since last year."

The 0-1 Cowboys next host the 0-1 Washington Commanders this coming Sunday afternoon.