Jamal Adams, New York Jets. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
If Jamal Adams were traded to the Dallas Cowboys, what could it look like?
New York Jets safety Jamal Adams wants to be traded to one of these seven teams.
Adams spent the last three NFL seasons playing for Gang Green after he was drafted No. 6 overall in the 2017 NFL Draft. Though Adams has been a two-time Pro Bowler and is coming off his first First-Team All-Pro season, he clearly wants out of the Big Apple. One of the seven teams he mentioned were the Dallas Cowboys. What could a deal for him to Dallas look like?
Adams is a native Texan, having grown up in the Greater Dallas-Fort Worth area. It’s only natural that the former LSU Tigers defensive back would want to come home and play for America’s Team if he had the choice. Who doesn’t want to play for the Cowboys anyway?
There are a few reasons the Cowboys have to be a serious contender in the Adams sweepstakes. Given that he’s from there, one could easily connect the dots and say this is his preferred destination of the seven he mentioned. Dallas and New York play in opposite conferences, so they won’t meet on the field all that often. Plus, owner Jerry Jones is never afraid to make a big deal.
What would a Jamal Adams trade to the Dallas Cowboys look like anyway?
Ultimately, Adams is one of the Jets’ best players, so the Cowboys just can’t send New York somebody off the scrap heap. It would have to include a Pro Bowl-caliber player, or at least a quality starter and a first-round pick. New York needs help in the receiving corps and Dallas has plenty of wide receivers to go around. Could there be a deal made there?
No, the Cowboys aren’t trading Amari Cooper to the Jets because he just signed a massive deal in free agency, so he’s off the table. The Cowboys could send someone like Michael Gallup or maybe even this year’s first-round pick in CeeDee Lamb. Gallup is expendable, but we don’t think it would be good karma to trade away a guy you just drafted in Lamb. This isn’t the NBA after all.
So would Gallup, a future first-round pick and maybe another pick or two be enough to sweeten the pot? Potentially, but a wide receiver isn’t going to be the cure for what ails the Jets. Maybe they ask for an offensive lineman or a linebacker? The Jets may have drafted Mekhi Becton and paid a boatload for C.J. Mosely in free agency, but these are areas where Dallas is strong.
Is this to say players like Zack Martin, Leighton Vander Esch and Jaylon Smith are expendable? Not exactly, but it won’t come cheap to get arguably the best safety in the league in Adams. If the Jets didn’t already have Sam Darnold, they could ask for quarterback Dak Prescott playing on the franchise tag. They’d get shot down of course, but the Cowboys do have Andy Dalton as a backup.
Are the Cowboys a likely trade partner for the Jets? If the Jets feel compelled to make a deal, Dallas would have a lot of interesting trade options that could go Gang Green’s way. Targeting a receiver in exchange for Adams feels like the best option, but there are plenty of ways it could go. This isn’t the type of deal former Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson would make, but it’s still a trade.
If the Jets feel like they have to trade Adams this offseason, the Cowboys have to be a likely suitor.