DALLAS — Dear Jerry, Hope this letter finds you well, or at least recovered from the beating you took after saying on the radio the other day there was "zero correlation" between how much a coach makes and his success rate. Don't know where you get your data these days, but it sounds to me like you're not paying much for your AI, either. Might want to upgrade. Might think about the same at ...

Owner Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys looks on during warm ups prior to the game against the Arizona Cardinals at AT&T Stadium on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, in Arlington, Texas.

Stacy Revere/Getty Images North America/TNS

DALLAS — Dear Jerry,

Hope this letter finds you well, or at least recovered from the beating you took after saying on the radio the other day there was "zero correlation" between how much a coach makes and his success rate. Don't know where you get your data these days, but it sounds to me like you're not paying much for your AI, either. Might want to upgrade.

Might think about the same at head coach, come to think of it.

Anyway, that's not why I'm reaching out. At least not now. I wanted to catch you before you played the Colts and suddenly got the idea you were only an edge rusher or linebacker away from a Super Bowl run with the trade deadline coming up Tuesday.

Don't do it, Jerry.

I mean, there's no fixing it. This season has already gone off the rails. Buckle up and see where it takes you. The NFC East is so bad, you might luck into the playoffs, though I wouldn't count on it. The Giants finally have a real coach.

I hear they paid $20 million a year for John Harbaugh, too.

Shoots a hole in the "zero correlation" thing, doesn't it?

Now, I know you don't want to look like you've given up. Where's the fun in that, right? Not to mention there's no revenue in it. Hard to get fans to plunk down money they've saved for college if you're not providing hope the Cowboys will turn out better than their kids would.

But, let's face it, you'd have to trade for the Seahawks' defense to fix what's wrong with yours.

Speaking of which, did you see where Pro Football Focus ranks DeMarcus Lawrence as the ninth-best edge in the league? Guess he wasn't done after all. Goes to Seattle and leads a Super Bowl run, and you're left without him or Micah Parsons or a pass rush and trying to pronounce "Ezeiruaku."

Listen, I know you wanted Maxx Crosby, but the Raiders apparently aren't trading him. Josh Sweat is supposedly available. Yaya Diaby, too. You'd like telling Schotty to get his Yayas out. Wonder if he's a Stones fan? Even so, I gotta tell you, I don't see either making a difference.

Not unless they could play a little corner or linebacker on the side.

Remember when DaRon "Bigfoot" Bland was picking off all those passes and running them back for touchdowns? Made himself a lot of your money. He couldn't get close enough for a pick-six these days if you told him what route the receiver was running and gave him a head start.

And PFF still has Bland four spots ahead of Shavon Revel, who's 96th among corners. Got a 38.3 grade.

That's out of 100, by the way.

Is it just me, or does it only seem like Ken Norton was your last good linebacker? Loved Sean Lee, but he couldn't stay healthy. Same with Jaylon Smith and Leighton Vander Esch, though, you have to admit, Jaylon's routes to the ball were suspect. I remember writing once that it seemed like he was always kicking down doors and chasing perps through a window and down an alley before making an arrest.

I'm not sure you're taking the position seriously. DeMarvion Overshown has a ton of talent, but he's not a middle linebacker. Last I counted, you're already on your third MLB of the season. Maybe you should have taken Jacob Rodriguez, the Texas Tech tough guy. He's killing it in Miami. You could have had him with your second pick of the first round, but instead you took Malachi Lawrence, who seems to have a problem finding the field, much less a quarterback.

Look, I feel bad about bringing this up, but have you heard what some of the old defensive coordinators are saying about your defense and the guy running it? Rex Ryan couldn't stop laughing. Wink Martindale said it makes him so sick, he keeps a trash can beside his chair. He called Christian Parker's defense the worst he's ever seen. The worst ever.

And here we thought it was just Matt Eberflus.

Or Mike Zimmer.

Don't get me wrong, I can see why you'd want to make a trade or two or 20. Only costs you draft picks, and it's not like they've turned out so hot lately. Looking back on your last 10 drafts, the only guys left from 2016-21 since you traded Micah are Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb. You're still pretty good at picking offensive linemen. Got Tyler Smith in '22 and Cooper Beebe in '24 and Tyler Booker last year. But where are the impact players otherwise? Bland and Jake Ferguson have inexplicably gone south. Ferguson's not even starting anymore.

The best guys on your defense — Joey Porter, Jr., Quinnen Williams and Kenny Clark — are the ones you traded for.

So I get why you might want to make more deals. Problem is, you don't have much capital left. Only four picks next year. Over the next two drafts, you've got just four in the first three rounds.

Here's the bottom line, Jerry: If you take the draft away, what are we supposed to do? Bad enough to have to sit through seasons that end in disappointment year after year. Kinda takes all the fun out of fall. The draft is our escape. From the combine in February straight through Easter, we've got campus workouts and mock drafts and draft websites. Forty times and cone drills. Dane Brugler's analysis. Daniel Jeremiah's logic. Mel Kiper's pompadour.

Think what you'd be doing if you trade any more picks. You'd strip of us of the fantasy that something might happen over those three days in April that could somehow make a difference next fall. Don't take that from us, Jerry. It's all we have left.