J.J. Watt trade rumors: 5 teams that should trade for Texans star
1. Dallas Cowboys
After missing out on Jadeveon Clowney, Adams, and the other available big names in the 2020 offseason, the Dallas Cowboys could use the shot of star power that Watt would inject into the arm of their talented but underachieving defense.
Dallas hung around in the playoff hunt for several weeks due to the ineptitude in the NFC East, but their season was all but over when star quarterback Dak Prescott went down with a heartbreaking injury. Prescott is fully capable of delivering Dallas a deep playoff run, but even accounting for his injury, the Cowboys’ defense was statistically worse than the offense. Not even Prescott can make up for a porous defense against the league’s most explosive playoff offenses.
The Cowboys were 28th in the NFL in points allowed, and their leaders in sacks were DeMarcus Lawrence and Aldon Smith with 6.5 and five sacks, respectively. That’s simply not good enough, and whereas the Seahawks pass rush lacked star power but at least had a little bit of depth, the Dallas unit technically has neither. Lawrence is capable of more, but the Boise State product is now on back-to-back seasons well under double-digit sacks.
Watt may not seem like a scheme fit for the Cowboys since he’s never played in a 4-3, but he might actually be better in this setup, especially later in his career when he’s more of a “pressures” guy as a rusher. The Cowboys’ interior pass rush is a joke, and so Watt would be the best upgrade imaginable. Considering his raw tools, experience, and smarts, Watt shouldn’t have as steep of a learning curve as, say, an early-career player transitioning. to a new scheme.
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There’s some risk involved in trading for Watt and maybe even changing up his game a little bit, but, by the same token, there could be more reward. The Cowboys could go the Kansas City route and throw in an edge rusher to make an interior pass-rushing upgrade, but it’s more likely for them to make an Amari Cooper-like deal, albeit with a less valuable draft pick going the other way.