How the Jets and Cowboys Lined Up Well for the Quinnen Williams Trade

Shortly after dealing Sauce Gardner to the Colts, the Jets continued an organizational firesale on Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline by dealing three-time Pro Bowler Quinnen Williams to the Cowboys for a 2026 second-round pick and a 2027 first-round pick, along with DT Mazi Smith. Williams, who’ll turn 28 in December, is a former first-team All Pro and has been an organizational stalwart since his arrival with the team as the No. 3 pick in 2019.

Just as with the Gardner trade, this deal creates far too much of a ripple effect to be contained with just one thought. Here are four on a deal that now gives the Jets an absolutely massive pick arsenal over the next two seasons with which to totally reshape their franchise.

Jets’ stockpile of draft picks

Let’s begin there. This is an extreme version of the Jets’ passage of power from Mike Tannenbaum to John Idzik in 2013. Back then, owner Woody Johnson made it a soft prerequisite (along with keeping Rex Ryan) for candidates to be willing to deal Darrelle Revis in lieu of Revis’s agents continually holding the Jets hostage for yearly raises. The initial result of that pick windfall was the start of a pair of draft classes that included two first-round picks in 2013 (Dee Milliner and Sheldon Richardson) and a 12-man class the following year, the likes of which have gone down in Jets lore as one of the more disappointing classes in recent memory.

The Jets are now in possession of two first-round picks in 2026 (the second courtesy of the Colts) and three first-round picks in 2027 (courtesy of the Colts and Cowboys). Additionally, the Jets have two second-round picks in 2026 and slightly more than a full complement of later-round picks in each of the 2026 and 2027 classes.

Though this is something to celebrate and get excited about, the Jets now need to generate a ton of starting-caliber players to replace the ones they gave away—and, in reality, likely more. Williams, for example, drew a consistent double team. From the publicly available data on Williams, he commanded two offensive linemen on 70% of snaps in 2023 and 60% of snaps last season. Williams was also the best double-team beater of the past three seasons, according to Next Gen Stats. Gardner was one of the few cornerbacks capable of locking down a No. 1 receiver week after week, which allowed for coverage flexibility on the other side of the field. The Jets went from having tentpoles, to simply shifting where those tentpoles reside. With the offensive line in serviceable shape, the Jets now have gaping holes at corner, interior defensive line, linebacker and safety.

Corner, especially, is a premium position that is difficult to get right. Gardner just turned 25, making him just two years older than Travis Hunter, whom Jacksonville upended their draft to acquire.

I reached out to one executive Tuesday who interviewed for GM jobs this past cycle and asked about the Jets, with the reply coming in the form of a meme: the scene in Dodgeball where Pepper Brooks notes, “It’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it works out for them.”

Impact of 2027 draft class

I spoke to several NFL and college executives Tuesday with a handle on draft evaluation and here is one significant tidbit as it pertains to the Jets specifically. The Williams trade deferred the incoming first-round pick until 2027, which supposedly contains a “massive” stockpile of excellent players. Evaluators seem to like the 2027 draft class—in which the Jets have three first-round picks—better than the ’26 class, in which the Jets have two. The 2027 class includes top receiver prospects in Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith and Alabama’s Ryan Williams. The 2027 draft class could also be the haven for those who seek quarterback play: Nebraska’s Dylan Raiola, Notre Dame’s CJ Carr and, yes, Texas’s Arch Manning could all declare at the conclusion of the 2026 season. In that regard, don’t be surprised if the Jets stand pat at the position in 2026 or attempt to find a bridge veteran in anticipation of the 2027 class.

How Williams fits in Dallas

I’m told the Cowboys and Jets have similar defensive line philosophies—likely because of the presence of defensive line coach Aaron Whitecotton, who moved to Dallas from New York in 2025—which makes the Williams acquisition an immediate plug-and-play scenario. The Cowboys hope that the rapid ascent of second-round rookie Donovan Ezeiruaku can time up with Williams’s talent as a dual-threat tackle who can rush the passer equally as well as he can defend the run and start to patch the hole left behind by Micah Parsons.

Ezeiruaku’s development is critical when you look at the totality of Dallas’s haul and it should not be lost on you that Ezeiruaku’s rookie deal plus the $20 million base salary due to Williams next year costs far less than the $46 million Green Bay is paying Micah Parsons. The Cowboys basically took Micah Parsons on an expiring contract and Smith, a 2023 late-first-round pick whose contract expires after next season, and brought in a 30-year-old Kenny Clark and a 28-year-old Williams. The Cowboys traded their 2027 first-round pick for Williams, which leaves them with an additional first-round pick in 2026 from Green Bay and theoretically the lesser of two first-round picks in 2027. Losing a 2026 second-round pick leaves a sizable gap for Dallas between the Green Bay pick it received for Parsons and the fourth-round pick that would end up as their next selection.

Tying it back to the Parsons trade

While this may look like a plotted-out-decades-ago FBI-style action plan for Dallas, the reality is that Jones was desperate after his words began to tie in knots and the Parsons trade narrative began to escape him. Jones said that the Parsons trade was meant to capitalize on Dak Prescott’s window as an elite quarterback, which seemed to usher in the idea of a youth-focused rebuild. However, Prescott may end up logging several career highs this year, including ESPN’s QBR, which measures several different game-specific factors. Hitting on free-agent acquisition George Pickens leaves Dallas, like a reverse version of the Texans, with one elite unit capable of a deep playoff run and another side of the ball that is, without question, among the worst in the league.

So, the tenor of Jones shifted quickly to an active trade deadline, in which 24- and 26-year-old first-round picks (Smith and Parsons) were shipped out the door in favor of second- or third-contract veterans aged 27 and 30 (Williams and Clark).