Cowboys owner walks back claim of completed mystery trade

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has made conflicting statements about a potential trade ahead of the NFL deadline.
Jones initially claimed a trade had been agreed upon, but later said no deal was finalized.
The Cowboys owner also stated the team would not be shifting into ‘selling mode’ after their recent defeat.

(UPDATE: On Tuesday, the Dallas Cowboys agreed to acquire linebacker Logan Wilson from the Cincinnati Bengals, according to multiple reports.)

Jerry Jones is ready to deal at the NFL trade deadline. Unless he isn’t.

With Tuesday’s 4 p.m. ET cutoff for swaps closing in, the Dallas Cowboys owner kept up his habit of engaging in double-talk regarding his team’s personnel plans. This time, Jones undermined his claim earlier in the day that he had reached agreement on a deal with another organization.

‘We could conceivably see something that we ought to do, in spite of tonight,’ Jones told reporters after a 27-17 loss to the Arizona Cowboys dropped the Cowboys to 3-5-1 on the season. ‘And the answer to your question: There is no trade right now. … But there is one I can do. Without question, there is one I can do, and I’m leaning toward doing it.’

Jones pushed back against the suggestion that the outcome of Monday night’s game in any way changed his outlook.

‘Everybody knows it’s subject to tomorrow,’ Jones said. ‘You can’t have a trade done if you haven’t gotten it done, OK? So we’ll see what goes tomorrow … I said we were going to have a trade that’ll be consummated tomorrow. That’s what I said.”

For any uncertainty Jones was willing to recognize, however, he made it clear that he doesn’t intend for his team to shift into selling mode after the defeat.

“I like our nuts and bolts a lot,’ Jones said.

Jones created a stir earlier in the day with his proclamation that a deal had been reached.

‘A lot of action going on right now in terms of trading,’ Jones said on ‘The Stephen A. Smith Show’ on SiriusXM Radio. ‘We certainly have made a trade, and we may make a couple more trades before that deadline. We’ve made one. We possibly could make two more, and I’m going to wait and let you read about that when we send the papers in tomorrow.’