The Cowboys are 3-5-1 this season following a Monday Night Football loss to the Cardinals. In the wake of the latest loss, Dallas made two noteworthy moves in acquiring linebacker Logan Wilson and defensive tackle Quinnen Williams ahead of the trade deadline to try to fix the second-worst defense in the NFL.
Unfortunately, it may be too little too late. According to ESPN, the Cowboys are currently tied with the Falcons and Cardinals with just a 7% chance of making the playoffs. So even if these moves pan out on the field, there's still a very good chance they miss the postseason for the second straight year.
So what went wrong? With the trade deadline now behind us, let’s look back at some of the things the Cowboys could have done differently this year that could have changed everything.
Hired a Different Coach
Brian Schottenheimer was not the big-name hire that most people expected Jerry Jones to make after the Cowboys parted ways with Mike McCarthy more than a week after the season ended in January. While Jones was still negotiating with McCarthy, he ignored the top coaching candidate of the year in Ben Johnson, who has the Bears playing winning football.
Instead, Jones imagined Jason Witten taking over, interviewed Leslie Frazier and Kellen Moore and had informal conversations with Deion Sanders. While the Cowboys did interview Aaron Glenn, they ended up settling on Schottenheimer, an internal candidate.
While Glenn (1–7), Moore (1–8) and Sanders (3–6) are all struggling in their own situations this season, imagine what Ben Johnson could do with the Cowboys offense. Not to mention, Frazier is the assistant head coach of a first-place Seahawks team.
We'll never know if literally any other hire could have gotten things right in Dallas this season, but we know for sure that Schottenheimer hasn't.
Closed out winnable games
If the Cowboys had won more games, you cannot deny they would be having a better season. Some people might point to losses to Bears, Panthers or Cardinals as games they could or should have won, but don't forget about the fact that they tied the Packers back in Week 4.
The Cowboys had a 16–13 lead at halftime and a 23–20 lead going into the fourth quarter. Then they took the lead again with 43 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Each time, the Packers answered, and Brandon McManus sent the game to overtime as the clock ran out in regulation.
In overtime, the Cowboys took over at the 20-yard line and drove all the way down to have first-and-goal at the five following a spectacular throw and catch between Prescott and Justin Tolbert. Then it was a run into the line, a sack and an incompletion. The Cowboys settled for a field goal and failed to stop the Packers on fourth down in the next series before Green Bay tied the game.
Traded for a disgruntled defensive star
Myles Garrett requested a trade back in February, but eventually signed a huge contract extension. While he has played up to that contract with 10 sacks (second in the NFL) and 15 tackles for a loss (first) halfway through the season, the Browns have struggled. Who knows if this is the quarterback situation Garrett imagined back in March, but he doesn't seem happy with the team's 2–6 record.
Las Vegas defensive end Maxx Crosby is also a player who could have helped the Cowboys this year. Then there's Cincinnati's Trey Hendrickson who was available before and after signing a one-year contract extension.
A move for any of these guys could have bolstered the second-worst defensive unit in the NFL this season. Of course, there is also one other defensive-related thing the team could have done differently...
Not traded Micah Parsons
In case fans somehow forgot, the Cowboys went into training camp with one of the best defenders in the entire NFL on their roster, but negotiations went horribly wrong and they ended up trading Parsons to the Packers. Now they're here.
Hired a real general manager
The architect of this factory of sadness remains "The Gambler," Jerry Jones. It's been three full decades since the Cowboys won a Super Bowl and Jones is the one who puts every single team together. The results say it's not working. With anyone else in charge, maybe they would have hired a different coach, worked things out with Micah Parsons, changed a couple of results and acquired a player at the trade deadline that would actually make a difference.
Unfortunately for Cowboys fans, the team's GM has the unwavering support of ownership and it sounds like only one thing will ever lead to a regime change.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Five More Moves Cowboys Could’ve Made to Save Their Season Before the Trade Deadline.
