Cowboys make major move for beleaguered defense in trade for Jets’ Quinnen Williams

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FRISCO, Texas (AP) — The Dallas Cowboys traded for star defensive tackle Quinnen Williams of the New York Jets on Tuesday in a major move to try to improve one of the NFL’s worst defenses.

The deal for Williams came about two hours before the trading deadline, following a lower-profile addition in linebacker Logan Wilson from the Cincinnati Bengals, who was acquired for a seventh-round pick in the upcoming draft.

The Cowboys are giving New York a 2027 first-round draft pick, a 2026 second-rounder and underperforming defensive tackle Mazi Smith.

The Jets will get the better of Dallas’ 2027 first-rounders. The Cowboys added first-round choices each of the next two years in another blockbuster, the trade that sent star pass rusher Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers a week before the season.

The Cowboys were talking to the Jets about Williams when they were trying to find a resolution to the contract stalemate with Parsons during training camp. Dallas also got defensive tackle Kenny Clark in the Green Bay trade.

The trade gives Dallas the potential for one of the best interior defensive lines in the league in Williams and Clark, who has been good for the Cowboys but hasn’t been able to reverse the club’s struggles in recent years trying to stop the run.

It remains to be seen how the addition of Williams will help edge rushers who struggled badly early in the season without Parsons. The pressure has been better recently for the Cowboys, but mostly because of increased blitzing.

Dallas (3-5-1) is on its bye week coming off a 27-17 loss to Arizona and next plays at Las Vegas in another Monday night game Nov. 17.

Williams was No. 3 overall pick of the Jets in 2019 out of Alabama and has steadily developed into one of the NFL’s top interior defensive linemen.

An All-Pro in 2022 and a three-time Pro Bowl selection, Williams has 40 sacks and routinely drew double teams from opposing offensive lines that tried to neutralize him — but it also often helped open things up for other defenders.

Williams signed a four-year, $96 million contract extension with the Jets, including $66 million guaranteed, in July 2023.

He and his older brother Quincy, a linebacker who was an All-Pro in 2023, had been teammates with the Jets since 2021.

With the Jets off to a rough start to the season, Williams said the defense — expected to be a strength — was largely to blame.

“When you are probably the worst defense in the league,” Williams said a few weeks ago, “no matter where you’re at, you’ve got to fix things if you want to win football games.”

The 27-year-old Williams will be reunited with defensive line coach Aaron Whitecotton, his position coach the previous four seasons with the Jets. Brian Schottenheimer, a first-time head coach after a quarter-century as an NFL assistant, hired Whitecotton after getting promoted from offensive coordinator.

Smith has been a disappointment in three seasons since the Cowboys drafted him 26th overall in the first round. He has alternated between playing and being a healthy scratch most of this season. He was inactive against the Cardinals.

Wilson had requested a trade after his playing time decreased for the Bengals, who have the league’s worst defense. The Dallas defense is the NFL’s second worst.

“Some guys have the ability to see a certain key and, at the same time, take a step up in the hole,” Dallas owner and general manager Jerry Jones said on his radio show on 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday. “He knows how to get in the gaps right now. … For what we need right now, he can come in immediately and help us at linebacker.”

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AP Pro Football Writers Rob Maaddi and Dennis Waszak Jr. contributed.

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