National Football League

Should the Cowboys attempt to trade for Davante Adams?

Published Oct. 3, 2024 6:21 p.m. ET

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The Dallas Cowboys' pursuit of Davante Adams doesn't appear to be heating up — yet.

After it was reported that the Cowboys were among the teams monitoring the situation with the star wide receiver, Dallas hasn't been heavily involved in trade talks with the Las Vegas Raiders about acquiring Adams, The Athletic reported. 

Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy seemed to indicate that Dallas wasn't preparing for a major pursuit of Adams, either. McCarthy told reporters on Wednesday that while he has "tremendous love and respect" for the receiver he coached for several years with the Green Bay Packers, he feels "very confident with our receiver room" at the moment. 

While the Cowboys' reported lack of interest in Adams might have frustrated some, "The Facility's" LeSean McCoy actually thinks it's a good decision to not make a major pursuit for the star receiver because they already have one. 

"It's all about having that bond and chemistry as a player," McCoy said. "I look at different teams I played on. I played with really, really good players, especially wide receivers. I just imagine if you have two top-five receivers, how would that look like? Because everybody's not cool with taking the back seat, taking the second row. Right now, Davante Adams is still, in my opinion, an elite receiver and a top-tier guy.

"If it's a ‘gimme down,’ a third-and-3 or 4 [yards]. We throwing it - who's the ball go to? They playing man, who you gonna go to? And that might cause some friction in the locker room."

CeeDee Lamb has become one of the most highly-used receivers in football over the last couple of seasons. He led the league in receptions in 2023 (135) while Adams had at least 100 receptions in each of the previous four seasons. So, Adams would likely cut into the number of targets Lamb gets.

Are the Cowboys making a mistake in not pursuing a Davante Adams trade?

However, the Cowboys might need some help at receiver. Beyond Lamb, they only have one other wide receiver on the team who has at least 10 receptions or 100 receiving yards so far this season. Usual No. 2 wideout Brandin Cooks is also expected to miss some time due to a knee injury, hurting their depth at the position.

Still, Chase Daniel agreed with McCoy that the Cowboys shouldn't be using their trade assets to improve their wide receiver room. Rather, they should use them to address a couple of other clear needs. 

"There's two glaring holes [on the Cowboys]," Daniel said. "First, run game, zero. They have none. Right now, they're rushing for 75 yards a game. If that [stayed the same] at the end of the season, you see right here, 75.3 yards a game, it would be the fewest in a season in Cowboys history.

"Then you go over to the defensive line. Micah Parsons out for a while, DeMarcus Lawrence out for a while. They're soft in the pants, a little bit like you were saying, they get drove back. It doesn't make sense to me to add a receiver when there's much bigger holes everywhere else."

[Davante Adams trade rumors: Jets preferred, WR open to other teams; Chiefs, Bills lurking]

As Daniel touched on, the Cowboys didn't make any major investments at running back this offseason after losing Tony Pollard in free agency. Their most notable move was to bring back 29-year-old Ezekiel Elliott on a one-year deal and he's rushed for just 81 yards in the first four games.

On the other side of the ball, the Cowboys' defense ranks 26th in yards allowed and 28th in points allowed. They notably got run all over in their losses to the New Orleans Saints and Baltimore Ravens, giving up at least 190 rushing yards in each game.

Emmanuel Acho recognized that the Cowboys could improve defensively or in the run game. But he made the argument that acquiring Adams would help patch up those holes. 

"I believe it would be the distraction that the Cowboys need, not literally," Acho explained. "Here's what I mean: The defense is bad, the run defense is bad. But if you can take a lead, you will distract the opponent from the aspect of your run defense being bad because the opponent won't have the time to run the ball, because if you have a lead now, the opponent is playing catch up."

Obviously, the Cowboys want to score points and take big leads early. But if they are able to do that, that would give an extra advantage to Dallas by forcing opposing offenses to play into the team's strength on defense. The Cowboys rank 20th in passing defense, though they've only allowed 209.5 passing yards per game. They're also tied for fifth in interceptions (four) this season.

James Jones joined Acho in saying that the Cowboys should trade for Adams, believing that "you need superstar players on your team in this league." Additionally, Jones, who played with Adams under McCarthy in Green Bay, doesn't think there would be a problem with the star receiver taking a lesser role. 

"He knows exactly who Davante Adams is, not just as a player, but as a person," Jones said. "So he knows that [Adams] ain't gonna come in there and be no distraction to CeeDee Lamb. [Adams] is a superstar now, but [Adams] has been a No. 3, a No. 2 and a No. 1."

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National Football League

Dallas Cowboys

Davante Adams

Chase Daniel

James Jones

Emmanuel Acho

LeSean McCoy

The Facility