Jerry Jones Says Cowboys Won't Tank for Better NFL Draft Pick as Playoff Hopes Fade

Despite the team's long odds of making the playoffs, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones isn't shifting his focus to prioritize draft positioning over the final weeks of the 2025 NFL season.

"We will not try for draft position," he said Tuesday on 105.3 The Fan (via ESPN's Todd Archer). "We will not be looking at anything like that. We'll be playing football under whatever the circumstances are."

At 6-7-1, the Cowboys are 10th in the NFC playoff race, and NFL.com has their postseason chances at less than one percent. For all intents and purposes, they're out of the race.

With little to nothing to play for in the short term, maybe it's time for Dallas to basically pack it in.

One argument against tanking, however, is that the strategy may not dramatically shift where the team is projected to land in the first round.

The Cowboys would have the No. 14 pick if the season ended today. Let's say they lose their final three games and finish at 6-10-1. There are already nine teams with 10 or more losses. The seventh pick is Dallas' ceiling when the Arizona Cardinals (3-11) would be at No. 6.

Picking earlier is obviously better, but the caliber of prospects available at No. 14 is much different from a team can get toward the latter end of the top 10.

Bleacher Report's NFL draft team listed edge defender, linebacker and a No. 2 wide receiver as the Cowboys' areas of need. Stars at those positions can go early, but Jones and the front office will have options even if they're on the clock in the middle portion of Day 1.

Not to mention, owning the Green Bay Packers' first-rounder gives Dallas some flexibility. It can move up for a player it really likes, or it can focus instead on recouping the second- and third-rounders it has traded away. There are a lot of holes to fill in the squad.

Maybe Jones erred in the first place by trying to contend with a flawed roster, one that got worse after Micah Parsons' departure. But the time to start tanking — either implicitly or explicitly — passed a few weeks ago.