Quinnen Williams Trade Analysis: What It Means for Cowboys Now and Impact in Future

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The Dallas Cowboys made the splash move that many fans had called for, acquiring defensive tackle Quinnen Williams from the New York Jets. Let’s take a deeper dive into what it means for the team now, and in the future.

Dallas Receives: Quinnen Williams

New York Receives: 2026 second-round pick, 2027 first-round pick, DT Mazi Smith

It’s important to note that the 2027 first rounder will be whichever pick is higher between Dallas’ own pick and the 2027 first rounder from the Green Bay Packers in the Micah Parsons trade. Both of those picks are now unable to be traded until after the 2026 season.

Dallas will have Williams under team control for two more years, with a $21.75 million cap hit in 2026 and a $25.5 million cap hit in 2027. If, for whatever reason, they want to move on from Williams after 2026, they’ll be able to do so while incurring no dead money.

Of course, it’s possible, if not likely, that the team and Williams iron out a reworked and extended deal this offseason or the next. But for now, the Cowboys will have a high-level player under team control for multiple years at a reasonable rate.

As far as this year is concerned, the removal of Smith and addition of Williams simply bumps everyone down a notch in the interior defensive line rotation. With that said, Brian Schottenheimer did say that the team will continue to run more five-man fronts after the success the team had doing so on Monday night.

Indeed, while the defense struggled overall, they did have a season-high five sacks. It’s entirely possible that this five-man front leads to more scenarios where Williams, Osa Odighizuwa, and Kenny Clark are all on the field together.

Solomon Thomas, Jay Toia, and Perrion Winfrey also figure to mix into the rotation. On the edge, expect Donovan Ezeiruaku and Jadeveon Clowney to be the main pass rushing duo with Dante Fowler and Justin Houston rotating in.

Essentially, this move allows players that have miscast as main contributors (Thomas, Fowler, etc.) to slide back into the complimentary roles they should’ve been in all along.

This is where things get interesting. As currently constructed, the team is slated to have three defensive tackles all earning $20 million or more next year in Clark, Odighizuwa, and Williams, a situation that seems likely to be addressed early in the offseason.

Williams is obviously going nowhere, and cutting Odighizuwa would result in a $32.75 million dead cap hit. Releasing Clark, however, would incur no dead money and come with $21.5 million in cap relief.

So clearly, Clark will not be back under those terms. If he does well playing with Williams and Odighizuwa over the next eight games, he and the team might have mutual interest in bringing him back on a lesser deal.

The most likely scenario is that Clark is released and allowed to test the free agent market, with Dallas asking him to bring any offers back to them and allowing the team the opportunity to match. This is a common mode of operating between a team and a respected veteran in these types of scenarios.

Cowboys: B+

For the Cowboys, I’m going to give this one a B+. In a vacuum, it’d be an easy A but, in context of the Micah Parsons trade and how the package for that has evolved into being used for this deal, I have to bump it down.

As for the Jets, I’ll give them an A. They get a strong return for a player that, while productive, was not a complete game changer. Additionally, Williams had reportedly been unhappy.

As reported by The Athletic, “Williams had expressed his unhappiness to people close to him — he was “miserable.” Being able to move a disgruntled player for the compensation they received is good business for a new regime looking to tear things down to the studs.

Overall, a rare win/win trade that should allow both teams to move forward not just this season, but the next few as well. Not bad work for a mid-season deal.