LB Bobby Wagner to hit free agency again; will Cowboys play ball this time?
Free agency doesn’t officially start until March 15, but teams who will be looking for help in the middle of their defense just got an intriguing head start on their window shopping.
The Rams and nine-time All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner have agreed to part ways, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
He’ll likely warrant some level of consideration from the Cowboys front office, though it’ll be a near-repeat of the same conversation had almost exactly one year ago, after Wagner had been released by Seattle. The Cowboys reportedly contacted him then and expressed their interest in reuniting him with defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, but that notion was quickly snuffed out over the financials.
Wagner signed a five-year contract with Los Angeles just a few weeks later; the 32-year-old went on to start all 17 games for the Rams and notched a career-high six sacks in the team’s disappointing follow-up to their 2021 championship campaign.
The former second-round draft pick is clearly still a top-tier talent, earning PFF‘s highest grade for a linebacker in 2022 and for the third time in six seasons.
The highest-graded LB by season since 2013 pic.twitter.com/IP9ImlDcJB
— PFF (@PFF) February 22, 2023
The Cowboys have questions at the linebacker position, as Leighton Vander Esch, Anthony Barr, and Luke Gifford are all set to enter free agency themselves. Damone Clark, Jabril Cox, Devin Harper, and Devante Bond have all shown promise here and there, but whether any of them are ready to step into a major role in the LB corps is unclear.
So a proven leader like Wagner could come in very handy in Dallas.
And given that he requested his release from the Rams specifically so that he could play for a contending team in 2023, that short-lived dream of him putting a star on his helmet is suddenly back in play.
Once again, it will come down to dollars and cents for the Cowboys. But as Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News has pointed out, “the linebacker who counted most against their salary cap last season was Jaylon Smith ($6.8M in dead money from 2021 release). Smith is off the books in 2023. That helps.”
It helps indeed. Whether Wagner would ultimately help the Cowboys defense is about to be kicked around.
