Sunday’s 44-24 loss in Mile High served as a brutal reminder of just how far the Dallas Cowboys are from competing with the best the NFC has to offer. While they can take down any team because their offense is elite, they are also capable of losing to anybody because their defense is that awful.

There’s been a lot of talk about whether the Cowboys should make a big trade before the November 4 deadline to improve on that side of the ball. A lot of fans are now on the fence about that, but Jerry Jones stated that Sunday’s result did not alter his perception of the deadline.

It sounds like Jones will make a deal if the right one presents itself, but he also made a harsh admission about the defense that Cowboys fans have been screaming for weeks, if not months.

“I don’t know what’s realistic,” Jones said about the deadline, via ESPN’s Todd Archer. “Could one better player — if we didn’t pay too big a price to have a better player on defense to possibly help? I’m not trying to be cute, but that’s why you’d go get him because you think that you could go help your defense. Are we one player away on defense? I think we’re not. I think we’re more than that away, but what we’re closer to than it looks, in my mind, is executing better on defense.”

Jerry Jones finally admits Cowboys’ defense isn’t one player away

It took some time, but Jones has finally seen the light. He made sure to note that execution is still a big part of the problem, and he defended defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus after the loss. But at least Jones is starting to come around about just how broken the defense is.

The Cowboys have reportedly called the Raiders and Bengals about star pass rushers Maxx Crosby and Trey Hendrickson. While Crosby or Hendrickson would be a huge boost, not even Myles Garrett, who had five (!) sacks for the Browns on Sunday, would mask every flaw of this defense.

The same can be said about Micah Parsons. While Parsons’ ability to collapse a pocket in the blink of an eye would help out with the coverage woes, he was on the team in Dallas’ worst defensive performances under Dan Quinn. While Parsons is outstanding, one player can only do so much.

In a vacuum, the Cowboys need two new cornerbacks, a complete overhaul at the safety position, multiple new linebackers and pass rushers, and another defensive tackle.

A makeover of that magnitude will need more than one offseason to fix, and it will require Jones to be active in free agency. The Cowboys have been poor at drafting on defense for years. Spending all four first-round picks in the next two years on defensive players won’t be enough.

That’s why a Crosby trade makes sense regardless of the team’s ceiling this year. He can help this season and in the future. But the last thing Dallas needs is Jones to act out of desperation and make multiple trades to help a defense that is several pieces away and clearly doesn’t have the right coordinator.