Jerry Jones and Co. have done an admirable job retooling the defensive personnel after the abomination that was the 2025 season.
The project starts and ends with new coordinator Christian Parker, but Jones also has to put him in a position to prosper, and right now, the state of the linebacker and cornerback rooms has a lot of Dallas Cowboys fans uneasy with training camp just a few weeks away.
As such, the drumbeat for Dallas to sign Bobby Wagner has only intensified. Even at 36 years old, Wagner would be the Cowboys' best MIKE linebacker since Leighton Vander Esch. The pairing makes so much sense that Seattle Seahawks expert Lee Vowell of 12th Man Rising understands it could become reality, and he's not a fan.
"But if he wants to keep going, he would obviously have to find a team that needs an inside linebacker but is likely unwilling to pay top dollar to sign one. Unfortunately for Seahawks fans, this could mean that Wagner ends up with the Dallas Cowboys," Vowell wrote.
Nobody would mistake Cowboys-Seahawks for one of the NFL's premier rivalries, but DeMarcus Lawrence reignited it after Seattle signed him last offseason. Lawrence took a parting shot at Dallas on his way out, saying he knew he'd never win a Super Bowl there, then proceeded to lift the Lombardi Trophy in his first season with the Seahawks.
And not to reopen old wounds, but there isn't a Cowboys fan who doesn't remember Tony Romo's botched field goal snap in the 2006 Wild Card Game in Seattle.
If Vowell believes that Seahawks fans would "hate" seeing Wagner sign with Dallas, then by all means, Jerry, bring the Los Angeles native over to Arlington.
The Dallas Cowboys' defense needs a stabilizer like Bobby Wagner
Putting aside the jab about the Cowboys' penchant for pinching pennies, Vowell hit the nail on the head. Despite what Brian Schottenheimer has said publicly about the roster, Dallas is hurting at inside linebacker, and Wagner, despite being a legend of the game, won't be expensive.
Before free agency, Pro Football Focus projected him to sign a one-year, $8.5 million contract. Spotrac's valuation was similar, forecasting Wagner's market value at $7.7 million.
The Cowboys' $5.49 million in available cap space might look restrictive, but it wouldn't prevent them from signing Wagner.
And speaking of Brian Schottenheimer, Vowell identified the Cowboys' head coach's relationship with Wagner as a natural selling point. The two overlapped with the Seattle Seahawks from 2018 to 2020, when Schottenheimer served as Seattle's offensive coordinator.
Don't underestimate the importance of connective tissue. Money ultimately drives most free-agent decisions, but a veteran like Wagner likely values familiar faces more than he did earlier in his career. That may help explain why he reunited with his former Seahawks defensive coordinator, Dan Quinn, in Washington two years ago.
A linebacking corps anchored by Wagner alongside DeMarvion Overshown and Dee Winters would give opposing offenses plenty to worry about. Better yet, it would allow Dallas to ease Shemar James and Jaishawn Barham into complementary depth roles rather than counting on them to play significant snaps.
It's a match made in heaven, and Vowell's perspective is extra motivation to make it happen. There's no love lost between Dallas and Seattle right now.
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