Jerry Jones has set his mind to make Dallas a defensive threat this season. Under new defensive coordinator Christian Parker, the boys are set to go all-in during free agency, and one of their top targets is reportedly an Eagles star.

“Eagles linebacker Nakobe Dean is someone to watch as a green-dot player in the middle of the defense,” ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported on March 1. “The Cowboys will monitor the top of the pass-rush free agent options, too. They aren’t guaranteed to spend big, but I believe they will get a pass rusher at some point.”

The Cowboys are trying to fill a massive hole. One of their biggest areas of concern is the pass rush. Last season, Dallas ranked 24th in the league with just 35 sacks. And anyone who says losing Micah Parsons had nothing to do with that drop needs to think again.

In the 2024 season, Dallas finished third in the league with 52 sacks. Parsons accounted for 12 of them, the highest on the team that year. Adding a linebacker like Nakobe Dean to organize the middle of that defense is exactly the kind of move that Parker’s new scheme demands.

In four seasons with the Eagles, Dean has recorded 7.5 sacks, 226 tackles, 13 QB hits, and 62 quarterback blitzes. But his injuries have been impossible to ignore. Over those four years, he has appeared in just 47 of a possible 68 regular-season games, starting only 27 of them.

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In the 2024 season, Dean tore his patellar tendon and missed the final three games, including Philadelphia’s Super Bowl run. That same injury kept him sidelined for a good portion of last season as well, while he worked his way back.

His 2025 season ended with four sacks, 55 tackles, six QB hits, and 15 quarterback blitzes across eight starts. But the linebacker can still play at an elite level. In the 2024 season, he posted 128 tackles and 41 quarterback blitzes. That is exactly what Dallas needs right now, and Jones has made it clear he’s ready to write the check.

Jerry Jones opens his vault for the 2026 offseason

Jones has made one thing pretty clear this offseason: change is coming to Dallas. The owner has talked about being willing to “hitchhike back to Dallas to win a Super Bowl.” So, unlike previous years, when they stayed cautious in free agency, Jones says they will do things differently this time around.​

“I would bet that we will spend more money in free agency than we have,” Jerry Jones said at the combine. “I want you to know that the only way to push more [out] is for me to go borrow some of my future, OK?”

However, no matter how hard Jones wishes to bet big, it will not be so easy. The Cowboys sit dead last in cap space this offseason. They are $56.13 million over the cap, and their effective cap space sits $63.63 million in the red. To land Dean and pay him his market value, Dallas will need to draw a very strategic map and execute a series of contract restructures before free agency even kicks off.

That urgency makes the timeline even more important. Dean is set to become an unrestricted free agent on March 11. His four-year, $5.18 million rookie deal will officially expire when the new league year begins. According to Spotrac, Dean’s projected market value sits at $7.8 million per year, a significant rise from the $1.3 million per year average.

However, his injury history could bring that number down and leave room for negotiations. The legal tampering period opens on March 9, giving the Cowboys a two-day window to start contract discussions before Dean officially hits the open market.