The Cowboys could trade for Maxx Crosby, T’Vondre Sweat, and Minkah Fitzpatrick, reshaping their defense with bold moves before the 2025 NFL trade deadline.
Cowboys Eye a Defensive Overhaul
The Dallas Cowboys could be on the verge of one of the boldest defensive shakeups in franchise history.
With the offense ranking among the NFL’s best, owner Jerry Jones is exploring trades to rebuild the defense around proven veterans — could those players be Maxx Crosby, T’Vondre Sweat, and Minkah Fitzpatrick?
Each move would fill a critical void: Crosby would restore Dallas’s edge pressure, Sweat would anchor the interior alongside Kenny Clark and Osa Odighizuwa, and Fitzpatrick would take over as the Cowboys’ top safety, replacing Donovan Wilson.
With tradable assets like Trevon Diggs, Jalen Tolbert, and Mazi Smith, and multiple future high draft picks, Dallas has both the means and the motivation to make major moves before the 2025 trade deadline.
Maxx Crosby: The Elite Edge Dallas Needs
Maxx Crosby is everything the Cowboys defense has been missing since parting ways with Micah Parsons — a relentless, emotional leader who sets the tone every snap.
The Las Vegas Raiders continue to insist he’s untouchable, but the Cowboys may force their hand with a massive offer involving future first-round picks.
https://twitter.com/CrosbyMaxx/status/1985147426920100013
Crosby recorded 12.5 sacks and over 80 pressures last season, ranking among the top three edge rushers in both total pressures and pass-rush win rate.
His relentless playstyle and durability make him a perfect fit in Dallas, where physical toughness has too often been inconsistent.
Potential Trade Scenario 1:
- Cowboys receive: Maxx Crosby
- Raiders receive: 2026 1st-round pick (Dallas) and 2026 1st-round pick (via Green Bay)
Why it works: Dallas gets an All-Pro pass-rusher still in his prime and under contract through 2029. Las Vegas gains valuable draft capital for a potential rebuild.
Fit: Crosby opposite Jadeveon Clowney, with rookie Donovan Ezeiruaku in rotation, would give the Cowboys one of the NFL’s most feared edge units.
T’Vondre Sweat: Power for the Interior
One Cowboys’ defensive weakness has been their run defense, and T’Vondre Sweat could solve that overnight.
The 6’4”, 360-pound defensive tackle from Texas has quickly developed into a powerful run defender for the Tennessee Titans, capable of clogging lanes and collapsing the pocket.
Sweat would join Kenny Clark and Osa Odighizuwa in a three-man rotation that finally gives Dallas the interior stability it has lacked.
Potential Trade Scenario 2:
- Cowboys receive: T’Vondre Sweat
- Titans receive: DT Mazi Smith and a 2027 2nd-round pick
Why it works: Dallas upgrades instantly with a young, dominant tackle, while Tennessee gains a developmental replacement and a valuable future pick.
Fit: Sweat’s presence would allow Clark and Osa to rotate more efficiently, keeping the front line fresh deep into games. For Dallas, this move would finally transform the defensive front from soft to stout.
Minkah Fitzpatrick: New Leader in the Secondary
With the Miami Dolphins facing roster and cap pressure after multiple major extensions, the Cowboys could pounce on an opportunity to land Minkah Fitzpatrick.
The veteran safety is one of the NFL’s most intelligent and versatile defensive backs, capable of playing single-high, man coverage, or in the box.
Potential Trade Scenario 3:
- Cowboys receive: Minkah Fitzpatrick
- Dolphins receive: CB Trevon Diggs, WR Jalen Tolbert, and a 2026 4th-round pick
Why it works: Dallas upgrades at safety, replacing Donovan Wilson with an All-Pro who brings more range, communication, and consistency on the back end.
Miami, meanwhile, gets a younger Pro Bowl corner and valuable depth for its offensive system.
Fit: Fitzpatrick’s arrival would push Wilson out of the starting lineup, creating a safety trio of Fitzpatrick, Malik Hooker, and Juanyeh Thomas — giving Dallas flexibility and experience across the board.
Building a Championship-Caliber Defense
If Dallas pulled off even two of these trades, the defensive identity would completely change.
- Crosby gives Dallas the edge terror it’s lacked since Parsons’ departure.
- Sweat turns the interior into a wall with Clark and Osa.
- Fitzpatrick commands the secondary with experience and playmaking ability.
Each trade represents a short-term gamble with long-term potential payoff — exactly the kind of aggressive approach Jerry Jones has long been known for.
Time for Bold Moves
Trading two 2026 first-rounders for Crosby, Mazi Smith and a 2027 second for Sweat, and Diggs, Tolbert, and a 2026 fourth for Fitzpatrick would reshape the Cowboys defense overnight.
It’s costly. It’s aggressive. And it’s exactly the kind of move that can turn a playoff team into a Super Bowl threat.
With Dak Prescott playing some of the best football of his career and the offense firing on all cylinders, this may be Dallas’s best window to win big.
Adding stars like Crosby, Sweat, and Fitzpatrick could make the Cowboys’ defense as dangerous as their offense — and finally make them true contenders again.
Jerry signing Osa for 80 million was the bizarre act of the offseason followed by drafting a guard at #12 instead of one of the several big defense linemen. Now, assetts have to be used to overcome the bad decisions. These 3 would be good but would be unneeded if the Boys had not totally wasted the 2025 draft .
Signing Osa to 80 million a year was a cheap deal!! Osa could’ve gotten a lot more than that if he wanted it!! But he wanted to stay in Dallas and he wasn’t worried about getting the most money on his contract!! But he was worth the money!! But in case you haven’t noticed, pretty much every player on our defense is playing bad this season, but it’s not because of the players, it’s because of Eberflus and his stupid scheme!! But with all the stupid comments you make, I’m sure you haven’t figured that out yet!!
And there’s no problem with drafting a guard at 12!! I’m not sure where you come up with this garbage, but to let you know, if the player is good enough to be drafted in the first round, then it doesn’t matter if the player gets drafted at 2 or 22!! The facts are that the player is good enough to go in the first round, so it doesn’t matter where he gets drafted!! And Booker is good enough, so it was worth drafting him at 12!! But you act like it’s the first time a guard was ever drafted that high in the draft, but that’s not even close to being the highest guard taken in a draft!! The colts drafted a guard at number 6 overall!! So it happens, especially when the player is good enough, and Booker is definitely good enough!! But so you know, Jerry and Stephen actually tried to trade down in the draft, but they couldn’t find a trade partner, so they didn’t have a choice but to draft the player they wanted at 12, and they wanted Booker, so they had to draft him at 12 because they didn’t have a choice!! And it wouldn’t have made any sense to draft a defensive linemen when we needed a guard to replace Zack Martin more, so drafting Booker was the right choice, and definitely better than drafting any of the defensive linemen that was available!! The only player I would have considered over Booker at that point was Egbuka, but we already have Ceedee, so taking the guard was the best option!! But you obviously wouldn’t know that since it seems like you don’t know much of anything when it comes to football!!
When are you people gonna understand that the players aren’t the problem for our defense, it’s the scheme they’re playing in!? We can trade for all 3 of these players, and it still wouldn’t help our defense, because these 3 players wouldn’t be able to do everything themselves in this scheme!! I don’t care how good Max Crosby is, he’s still not good enough to get to the QB before the QB throws the ball because the QB can throw the ball in a second!! When our secondary is playing zone coverage, they’re 7 or 8 yards away from the receiver, so the QB is able to throw the ball right after the center snaps the ball to him!! It doesn’t matter who the pass rusher is, they’re not getting to the QB that fast!! So you can say our pass rushers haven’t been good all you want, but the facts are that they are good, and we don’t need another pass rusher!! What we need is for Eberflus to change his stupid scheme!! Out of the very few things we need, you bring up 2 trades for positions we need the least!! We’re good against the run too, but it mostly when Clark is on the field!! But we can play him more and we’ll be fine!! But what we need more than anything is a LB!! More specifically a LB that can play in coverage!! A LB like Logan Wilson!! It don’t have to be Logan Wilson, I just brought him up because he requested a trade recently and I heard we called Cincinnati about trading for him!! But as long as the LB has the same skill set as Wilson does, it’ll work!!
And I don’t like any of these trade ideas!! First off, it would be stupid to trade 2 first round picks to get an edge rusher when we just got those picks 2 months ago!! Plus like I said It wouldn’t be worth it because the scheme Eberflus runs would make Crosby useless!!
And then the trade for Fitzpatrick don’t make any sense either because we would be trading away our best corner for a safety, and then we would be stuck using garbage corners like Trikweze Bridges all season!! Plus, the dolphins didn’t even give up that much to get Fitzpatrick back on their team!! So that trade makes no sense!! I wouldn’t mind trading for Fitzpatrick, but it would make more sense to trade them Donovan Wilson and another player and a draft pick, instead of giving up our top corner and another player plus a 4th round pick!!
And then the Sweat trade makes no sense because we would be giving up more to get him than he’s worth!! The Titans only used a 2nd round pick for him in the 2024 draft, so why would we give them the exact draft capital when he’s already in his 2nd year in the NFL!? Last time I checked, players cost drop the longer they’ve been in the NFL, unless they’re elite players, which Sweat is not!! And you think it’s a good idea to give them a 2nd round pick, plus Mazi!? The 2nd round pick is too much as it is, but you wanna give them another player on top of that!? That makes no sense!! Not only because of the 2nd round pick being too much, but because Mazi has only been in the NFL for 3 years now, so even if his stock has dropped, he’s still worth more than what your giving him credit for!! And it wouldn’t make any sense getting a player as big as Sweat anyways, Eberflus wouldn’t do anything but make him lose 60 pounds and learn to play a different style, just like he did Mazi!! That’s the only reason Mazi isn’t as good as he should be yet!! Before Mazi got drafted he played at a certain weight his whole time in college, and as soon as he gets drafted, Dan Quinn makes him lose a bunch of weight and play a different style than he’s ever played before, and it obviously didn’t work, but then Mike Zimmer comes in and let’s Mazi gain the weight back and play the way he used to play, and by week 10 Mazi was back to playing close to the way he did in college, but then Eberflus comes in this year and makes Mazi lose all that weight yet again, and learn another style of play!! So not only did he have to lose weight one year then gain weight the next year and then lose weight again this year, and learn a new way of playing every year, but he had to learn a new scheme every year too!! That’s way too much for a young player to go through!! And if it wasn’t for all that change in his weight, and scheme he would be a good player by now!! There’s no player ever to get drafted or gonna get drafted that’s gonna have to go through that much change and turn out to be a good player, it’s just not possible!! So I think Mazi could’ve be a really good player if they would’ve just left him alone and let him play the way he played in college…. The way they drafted him to play!! But since they don’t know how to leave well enough alone, it mite be better for Mazi if he was traded to a team with a defensive coordinator that knows how to use him!! But I wouldn’t trade him and a 2nd round pick for Sweat, that’s too much!! I mite give Mazi and a 4th, but that’s about it!! And that’s still a lot in my opinion!!
a Dallas Cowboys fan, since the 70’s Jerry Jones is trying to fix the mistake he made trading Micah Parsons