The initial flurry of free agency is over, the draft is slightly more than a month away, and the NFL’s silly season is at a quiet point.
And Dallas still doesn’t have a linebacker. At this point, is it even fixable before they draft on April 23? Obviously, people have opinions that will be widely echoed.
There’s a top prospect who wants to play with his childhood hero, Dak Prescott, and wow, Prescott is old enough to have people who grew up loving him. Here is a rundown of the Cowboys’ doings.
Dallas Cowboys linebacker
In the first week of free agency, Dallas added some options at defensive line and in the secondary but whiffed on another big need, linebacker. Notable misses they were rumored to be targeting: Quay Walker, Nakobe Dean and Devin Lloyd.
At the moment, that’s clearly their biggest need heading into the draft — The Athletic’s Cowboys reporter Jon Machota said so — where they seem more likely to find help with their No. 20 first-round pick than that No. 12, where the top two linebackers (Arvel Reese or Sonny Styles) will likely be gone.
So what does Dallas do?
One name that has gained traction, one of the top free agents still out there, is Washington Commanders future Hall of Famer Bobby Wagner. The Sporting News’ Vinnie Iyer has predicted just that, writing “The Commanders are still the best fit, but Dallas could snatch his leadership at a big position of need.”
Mauricio Rodriguez and Wendell Ferreira of AtoZSports came up with another idea, yet another trade with the Green Bay Packers. Their idea is that Dallas trades one of its three fifth-round picks for Packers backup, 26-year-old Isaiah McDuffie. Not a regular starter, he is a rotation player who seems better than anyone Dallas currently fields at the position.
They write: “Though not a full-time starter, McDuffie has shown that he can fill the role the Cowboys need the most: A middle linebacker. Considering McDuffie is not a defensive cornerstone for the Packers, a Day 3 pick should be enough for the Cowboys to get him.
“A sixth-round pick originally used primarily on special teams, Isaiah McDuffie carved a real defensive role over the past three years in Green Bay — but particularly in 2024 and 2025.”
As for the draft, the other team The Athletic lists as needing a linebacker is Cincinnati, which picks at No. 10, two spots ahead of Dallas. That means the Cowboys are likely looking at a second tier of linebackers, such as CJ Allen from Georgia and Jacob Rodriguez from Texas Tech.
They would likely be available after No. 20, so Dallas could trade down.
Dak Prescott
Two weeks ago, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott was in the news when his engagement with fiancée Sarah Jane Ramos was called off, and she reemerged for the first time with an Instagram post of her with her (and Prescott’s) two children, daughters Margaret Jane, 2, and 9-month-old Aurora. It was uncaptioned, and there was no other context.
Meanwhile, Prescott got called out in a good way by Notre Dame running back Jadarian Price. When asked by Kay Adams of the NFL Network who he would most like to catch passes from, he offered up Prescott.
“Just because I grew up watching him as a Cowboy fan,” he said, drawing a huge laugh from the 39-year-old Adams.
To put an age context on that, the 22-year-old Price, who is generally expected to go in the draft well before Dallas is on the board at No. 12, entered Denison High School in North Texas in 2018 when the now-32-year-old Prescott was starting his third year with the Cowboys.
Dallas Cowboys mock draft
One thing every mock draft has in common is the Dallas Cowboys drafting defense at No. 12, and almost every mock has them taking more defense at No. 20. They’d face a fan revolt if they went offense in the first round, though the Micah Parsons trade proved they don’t much care about that.
So could they take offense at that top pick? That was posed to the staff on DallasCowboys.com as part of a mailbag and they gave the answer you would hope.
From Patrik Walker: “First, I hope not. Second, I don’t believe they’d pull that trigger unless, for some reason, they’re wiped out before going on the clock at 12th-overall but, even then, there’s the option to bail and find a buyer who wants that slot — potentially moving down a few spots to still have two first-round picks but to also possibly gain a second-rounder (they’ve got their third-round pick now, by way of the Osa Odighizuwa trade).
“The optics alone would be egregious, given what the defense was last year and the need to revamp it for Christian Parker’s blueprint. I’d be floored, and I do mean floored, if they went offense at No. 12.”
Bret Bloomquist can be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on X.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Dallas Cowboys news and rumors: What should they do at linebacker?
Reporting by Bret Bloomquist, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
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