The Dallas Cowboys have a need at linebacker, that\u2019s no secret. To their credit, they went after multiple players at the position like Nakobe Dean and Quay Walker during the first wave of free agency, but both chose to sign with the Las Vegas Raiders.<\/p>\n
There are still plenty of veteran linebackers on the market like Bobby Okereke, Germaine Pratt, Shaq Wilson, and others. However, there\u2019s one in particular that the Cowboys should seriously kick the tires on, and it\u2019s 11-time All-Pro Bobby Wagner.<\/p>\n
Of course, with Wagner heading into his 15th season in the league, the first thing many might say is why bring someone with that much wear and tear on his body? In this case, there are factors that make Wagner worth taking a look at, and here are four of them.<\/p>\n
Still playing at a high level<\/p>\n
Wagner finished with 162 tackles last season which ranked fifth in the NFL. He also finished ninth in the league in defensive stops with 52 per Pro Football Focus, which means he\u2019s still stopping plays for minimal gains. Wagner only missed eight tackles, logged 4.5 sacks, two interceptions, and 20 pressures last season. On top of all of that, Wagners 1,132 snaps were the most in his career, and it also led all defenders in 2025.<\/p>\n
The Cowboys have several young linebackers on the roster in DeMarvion Overshown, Marist Liufau, and Shemar James. While they\u2019re all talented in their own right, there\u2019s still things they need to work on, and in Overshown\u2019s case, he needs to stay healthy. These are perfect students for a guy like Wagner. Not only can he refine their game by teaching them what to do and what not to do, but Wagner has survived a decade and a half in the NFL, which gives him a ton of knowledge on how to take care of his body.<\/p>\n
Your best ability is availability in sports, and Wagner has mastered that aspect. He\u2019s played in 219 out of a possible 229 games in his career since being drafted in 2012, and he\u2019s only missed one game over the last five seasons. If he were to be signed by Dallas, he likely wouldn\u2019t have to play as many snaps as he\u2019s used to, which would aid him in staying healthy.<\/p>\n
He doesn\u2019t have an agent<\/p>\n
This factor should make Cowboys\u2019 owner Jerry Jones smile from ear to ear. He\u2019s openly tried to make handshake deals in the past, with the most recent being with former Cowboy Micah Parsons. If he can negotiate without an agent, Jones is in heaven. Wagner has negotiated his own deals for several years. So, this is right up the alley of how Jones would prefer to do contracts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Cowboys have a need at linebacker, that\u2019s no secret. To their credit, they went after multiple…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2066],"tags":[230,229,257,5355,2461,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-855308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-cowboys","8":"tag-cowboys","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-cowboys","11":"tag-dallas-cowboys-free-agency","12":"tag-dallascowboys","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116352854783172913","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}