4 moves Cowboys must make to reach next year's Super Bowl

2. Sign DT Justin Madubuike

It's bad enough watching your team lose to the same franchise over and over — which is how it feels when the Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers keep knocking off the Cowboys in the playoffs. It's worse when one of the players drops by a podcast hosted by a Dallas defender and basically tells that current player his defense sucks against the run and can't generate pressure up the middle.

That's exactly what happened when Micah Parsons brought Jordan Love on his "The Edge" podcast and the Packers quarterback said they were confident they could expose the Dallas defense. Love pointed to the fact that the Cowboys had a defensive back at linebacker and then stated there was no pressure up the middle from the defensive line. Which was a constant throughout the season.

We've already looked at a linebacker, who could solve one of those issues, and now we target an interior defender who would make a huge impact — Justin Madubuike. A third-round pick from Texas A&M, Madubuike developed into a major weapon for the Baltimore Ravens. He started as a solid defensive lineman but then became a star in 2023 with 56 tackles (12 for a loss), and 13 sacks.

A Dallas native, it would be a home run move for the Cowboys to bring Madubuike home. His ability to push the pocket from the 3-tech position is something this defense has been missing for years. It would also allow them to put Mazi Smith back at the 1-tech, putting an end to the experiment of using him as a 3-tech — which should have never been a thought let alone something that was put into practice.