The Cowboys wanted Jamal Adams badly.
How badly?
Enough to part with a first-round choice a year after trading their first-rounder to Oakland for receiver Amari Cooper. It would have been a blockbuster move a second consecutive season.
The Jets wanted more.
The Cowboys offered a first-round choice and an early third-day pick, either a fourth- or fifth-rounder, for the Jets safety, Jane Slater of the NFL reports.
That Steelers acquired safety Minkah Fitzpatrick from the Dolphins in exchange for a 2020 first-round pick, a 2020 fifth-round pick and a 2021 sixth-rounder. In turn, the Steelers received Miami’s 2020 fourth-round pick and a 2021 seventh-round pick.
The Jets, though, wanted closer to what the Rams gave the Jaguars for cornerback Jalen Ramsey. The Rams sent two first-round draft picks (2020 and 2021) and a fourth-round pick in 2021 to Jacksonville.
The Jets asked for a pair of second-round choices in addition to the first-rounder, according to Slater.
The Cowboys decided it was too much.
“At the of day, I don’t think they really wanted to let him go,” a Cowboys source told Slater.