BREAKING: Cowboys Trades Begin With Griffen to Lions

As The NFL Trade Deadline Approaches, Sources Say The Dallas Cowboys Have Been Trying To Swap Away Everson Griffen And Others - And Now Grifen Has Been Dealt to The Detroit Lions

FRISCO - The Dallas Cowboys seem dead-serious about "staying the course,'' as head coach Mike McCarthy put it in the wake of yet another debacle, this one Sunday's 25-3 loss at Washington. McCarthy does not wish to change his system and he does not wish to change his staff, but ...

Could Dallas be willing to change personnel?

We reported on Monday that the Cowboys are willing to listen to offers for a trio of newcomers who have not fit in defensively, league sources tell CowboysSI.com, with defensive linemen Everson Griffen and Dontari Poe and cornerback Daryl Worley in the Nov. 3 deadline spotlight.

And now comes the first movement, NFL Network first to report that Dallas is trading Griffen to the Detroit Lions for "draft pick considerations.'' (We're told it's a conditional sixth-rounder.)

This isn't to place the blame on that trio; 2-5 Dallas' defense is statistically among the NFL's poorest, and the poorest in franchise history - and that is not the singular fault of any player.

But irrefutably, those three new veterans have underperformed. And if Dallas isn't going to make more substantial changes - "I mean, we've had so much change just in our everyday function,'' McCarthy said, "I think the important thing is to stay the course'' - then Dallas is left with this.

The Cowboys have a system problem; that's one of the reasons for locker-room disgruntlement. They also have an issue with defensive coordinator Mike Nolan's supervision. But McCarthy is unbending there.

"It hasn't crossed my mind," McCarthy said when asked about Nolan's possible dismissal. "I'm focused on getting better each and every day. So, you know, that's where we are."

So we turn to Worley. who according to a source has a habit of playing "his style'' of defense regardless of assignment. And we turn to Poe, who essentially makes one tackle per week. And we turn to Griffen, for a decade in Minnesota a pass-rush phenom who recorded a sack on Sunday - maybe the first and only impactful play he's made in a Dallas uniform.

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"We just have to start fast and finish fast," Griffen said. "At the end of the day we are professionals and we've got to be able to bounce back, go out there and attack and do our job, and I feel we aren't doing that right now. We've got to go back to the drawing board.''

Yes, Dallas could've gone to the cliched "drawing board. Or, Dallas could've gone to the NFL trade-deadline phones. It just did. And now Everson Griffen is gone.