Jamal Adams' release is terrifying reminder of near-disastrous Cowboys trade

Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys will never live down trading Amari Cooper to the Browns for a fifth-round pick and sixth-round pick swap. In two seasons since the deal, Cooper has compiled 150 catches for 2,410 yards and 14 touchdowns. Only seven receivers have more yards than Cooper during that span.

To add insult to injury, the Cowboys chose to re-sign an injured Michael Gallup over fulfilling the remainder of Cooper's contract. Now, Gallup will likely become a cap casualty while Cooper is fresh off making his fifth Pro Bowl and hasn't shown any signs of slowing down.

The Cooper trade will go down as one of the worst in Cowboys history. Incredibly, it would've been topped by a deal Dallas nearly made two years earlier.

Remember how close they were to acquiring safety Jamal Adams from the Jets? The Cowboys wanted Adams, a Lewisville, TX native. Most of Cowboys Nation wanted Adams and the player himself openly lobbied for a return to his home state.

The Jets ultimately shipped Adams to the Seahawks for a historic haul. Seattle promptly made Adams the highest-paid safety in NFL history. After three straight lackluster and injury-riddled seasons, Adams was released on Tuesday.

Jamal Adams release is terrifying reminder of near-disastrous Cowboys trade

The Seahawks acquired Adams for a 2021 first-round pick, a 2022 first-round pick and a 2021 third-rounder. The Jets flipped the third-rounder to trade up for Alijah Vera-Tucker in the first round in 2021. Vera-Tucker is now a staple of New York's offensive line. The 2022 first-rounder became Garrett Wilson, who might be the best young receiver in the league.

The Cowboys pursued Adams before the 2019 trade deadline, so they would've jettisoned their 2020 first-round pick, a 2021 first-rounder and 2021 third-rounder. Those picks turned into CeeDee Lamb, Micah Parsons and Osa Odigizuwa, respectively. Parsons and Lamb are two of the best players in the NFL at their respective positions, while Odigizuwa is the team's best DT since Jay Ratliff.

The trade would've set the Cowboys franchise back years, and they would've been paying Adams ridiculous money to boot. After the trade, Adams inked a four-year, $70 million contract with Seattle, including $38 million guaranteed.

While Adams starred in his first season with the Seahawks in 2020, he appeared in 22 of a possible 50 regular season games in the three years since. That included Adams being limited to one game in 2022 with a torn quad. The former No. 6 overall pick never played a full regular season with Seattle and was PFF's 68th-graded safety in 2023 among 74 safeties that played 500 snaps.

You would've been hard-pressed to locate a Cowboys fan that didn't want the team to trade a king's ransom for Adams. Luckily, Adams lobbying for the move created friction between Dallas and Jets general manager Joe Douglas and any possibility of a deal fell by the wayside.

The trade will go down as one of the worst in NFL history. The Cowboys were terrifyingly close to being on the wrong side of that.

More Cowboys analysis