The Dallas Cowboys are a team in limbo. After getting nearly doubled up by the Denver Broncos 44-24 in Week 8, they sit at 3-4-1 and trail only the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC East.
There are just nine days until the Nov. 4 trade deadline, and owner Jerry Jones is having to mentally tussle with the consequences of his own pre-season actions.
Dallas' defense is atrocious, yet the team as a whole is positioned to potentially make a run at the NFC playoffs due mostly to its high-powered offense. However, Jones isn't convinced the Cowboys are a trade or two away from being true contenders.
"If I saw a proposition for us to help this team, no matter what this score was today, then I would look at it on the merits of helping the team," Jones told reporters Sunday. "I would completely look at the merits for both next week or the weeks after [and the longer term]. No, today would not affect a decision on trading for a player."
Jerry Jones made his Micah Parsons-less bed and now has to lay in it at the NFL trade deadline
If only Dallas had a two-time All-Pro, four-time Pro Bowl selection, defensive rookie of the year kind of player on its defense to shore up the pass rush, it might be able to consider bringing in some backup.
Oh wait, Jones traded Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers just days ahead of Week 1. He got Kenny Clark and two first round picks in return but those haven't been of much use this year.
Granted, Parsons wouldn't have been the fix-all solution to Dallas' defensive woes but he may have been worth a few key sacks more that potentially give the team opportunities in crunch time to win closer games.
"I don't know what's realistic," Jones continued. "Could one better player — if we didn't pay too big a price to have a better player on defense to possibly help? I'm not trying to be cute, but that's why you'd go get him because you think that you could go help your defense. Are we one player away on defense? I think we're not. I think we're more than that away, but what we're closer to than it looks, in my mind, is executing better on defense."
Well, you'd be one player away if you kept Parsons, Jerry, so miss us with that "cute" remark. Quarterback Dak Prescott can only do so much to put points on the board but he can't keep up in constant shootouts.
There's only one person to point the finger at for Dallas being stuck in this no-mans-land and it's Jerry Jones.