The New York Jets are cleaning house. Within an hour of trading Sauce Gardner, the Jets are now sending defensive tackle Quinnen Williams to the Dallas Cowboys at the 2025 NFL trade deadline.
If the Gardner trade was not evidence enough, the Jets cemented their full rebuild by dealing Williams. New York's 2025 season had already been going as poorly as possible and has now sent its two best players packing in exchange for more draft picks.
The Williams trade would have shocked on its own, but it merely adds to the Jets' drama after their Gardner deal. It will be a long final nine games for New York fans.
While the Jets have all but packed it in, the Cowboys are now clearly in desperation mode. Despite being just 3-5-1 ahead of its Week 10 bye, Dallas remains committed to turning its 2025 season around and making a run for the playoffs in the second half of the season.
With so much to dissect in the Gardner trade, Williams' move is getting overshadowed ahead of the 2025 NFL trade deadline. Regardless, the move will almost certainly have a profound impact on both franchises over the next two years.
Cowboys grade for Quinnen Williams trade
The Cowboys have made three significant trades in 2025, two of which returned notable defensive tackles. Jerry Jones is clearly committed to bolstering the Cowboys' defensive line, which has been an issue for years, and remains a concern in 2025.
When Jones finalized the Micah Parsons trade in the preseason, he said he liked the addition of Kenny Clark to improve Dallas' run defense. That has not shown up on paper, as the Cowboys enter their bye allowing the fourth-most rushing yards per game and the eighth-highest yards per attempt.
Perhaps Williams helps clog the middle. He is certainly an improvement on paper as a top-10 interior run defender on Pro Football Focus. The Cowboys are also reportedly extending Williams upon acquiring him to keep him in Dallas long-term.
Williams should improve the Cowboys' porous defensive line, but he is not a quick-fix who will immediately save a 3-5-1 team. Williams is undoubtedly a great player, but it takes more than an elite defensive tackle to turn a team struggling this much around. Take the New York Giants and Dexter Lawrence II for example.
If nothing else, the trade affirms Jones' belief in Brian Schottenheimer and the current roster. Giving up Mazi Smith means nothing in 2025, but the team will assuredly regret losing its 2026 first-round pick if it doesn't start stacking wins soon.
The trade is excellent on paper, but it could end up costing the Cowboys in the long run. Williams cannot turn Dallas' season around on his own, but this is still a medium-risk, high-reward move from Jones, who desperately needed a win at the deadline.
Grade: B-
Jets grade for Quinnen Williams trade
Whatever the Jets are thinking at this point, it cannot be good. They are clearly looking ahead and collecting as many draft picks as possible, but trading their two best players who are both in their athletic primes almost gives the team nothing to build on moving forward.
The Gardner and Williams move almost feels like a desperate attempt from Darren Mougey to mimic the move Sam Presti made at the beginning of his tenure with the Oklahoma City Thunder to hoard first-round draft picks. The key difference is that Presti traded aging veterans and kept his young players, while Mougey is simply picking his team apart at its core.
By trading Gardner, the cornerstone of the Jets' once-elite secondary, Mougey chopped down the Jets' formidable pass defense. Sending Williams to Dallas removes the staple of his team's run defense.
Trading Williams might not have gone over so poorly on its own. Instead, it came within minutes of the Gardner deal, adding to the frustration of the fan base and general confusion.
The Jets' season is already going nowhere, and now they have committed themselves to tanking for the next few seasons. Depending on what comes from the draft picks, this deal is not nearly as bad as the Gardner move. The person it hurts most is Aaron Glenn, whom the team has already transparently given up on.
The Jets can only hope that the Cowboys continue losing and end up with two top-15 picks in the 2026 NFL Draft. But considering the Gardner deal, they still have a chance to come out on top of this trade and make a bad situation just a tad bit better.
Grade: C
