Dallas Buyers Club: why the Cowboys were right to bet big at the transfer deadline

For three quarters on Sunday in Arlington, the Dallas Cowboys looked like the same exasperating, inconsistent, occasionally brilliant but far too often self-sabotaging outfit that has defined their 2025 NFL season.

Then Dak Prescott took over, the Philadelphia Eagles unravelled, and what followed was the sort of comeback win that can reframe an entire campaign.

At 5-5-1, Dallas are no one’s idea of a finished product, but the version that outlasted Philadelphia offers something that finally resembles a coherent thesis. And crucially, it’s a version that only exists because the Cowboys were willing to gamble at the transfer deadline.

Here, DAZN's Ryan Baldi analyses why Dallas' shrewd trade moves are already paying dividends.

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The reaction to Jerry Jones shipping significant draft capital to the Jets for Quinnen Williams on 4 November was immediate, loud, and largely disapproving. After all, this is the team that willingly traded away Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers in the offseason – a move explained as a long-term roster-building reset, but one that sent the defense spiralling early in the year.

Kenny Clark arrived in that deal, but the Cowboys still opened the season statistically among the league’s most vulnerable defenses, unable to stop the run, generate consistent pressure, or prevent games from becoming track meets. The secondary was – and remains – patchy at best.

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But even with those caveats, Williams has already vindicated the Cowboys’ boldness. His partnership with Clark and Osa Odighizuwa has quickly become one of the league’s more formidable interior trios. It is no exaggeration to say that Dallas now boasts one of the deepest defensive tackle groups in football.

Their ability to clog running lanes and collapse pockets from the inside has stabilised a defense that looked chaotic through September and October. The unit is still imperfect, but since the deadline, it has stopped being a liability and has at times flirted with looking genuinely solid.

The Cowboys doubled down on that defensive revamp by acquiring Logan Wilson from the Bengals, adding much-needed linebacker depth. Wilson’s intelligence and range have helped tie the middle of the field together, and his presence has allowed Dallas to diversify their pressure packages again.

If the secondary remains the biggest concern – and it does – at least it is now being protected by a front seven capable of dictating terms rather than absorbing blows.

On offense, meanwhile, the Cowboys are no longer merely functional; they’re formidable. Prescott has been one of the league’s best quarterbacks this season, benefitting from both a superb offensive line and from the emergence of George Pickens as a genuine star.

Pickens arrived via offseason trade to equal parts excitement and scepticism, but he has delivered the sort of explosive, boundary-bending production that changes game plans. Opposite him, CeeDee Lamb remains a do-everything menace.

With tailback Javonte Williams enjoying a breakout campaign, the run game has shed its old tendency to disappear for entire quarters or weeks.

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All of this paints a picture of a team that finally resembles the one Dallas always talks about being: tough, talented, explosive and capable of beating anyone on the right day. The Cowboys didn’t patch holes at the deadline; they reforged the spine of their roster.

And while the trade bill may come due in future drafts, the payoff is already visible.

At .500 with seven weeks left, Dallas are hardly guaranteed a postseason berth. But they are now built to make a real push – and built in a way that can travel, compete, and punch back.

For once, the gamble may have been exactly what the Cowboys needed.