{"id":277248,"date":"2026-05-03T15:54:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T15:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/277248\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T15:54:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T15:54:49","slug":"cowboys-news-reports-from-the-dallas-rookie-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/277248\/","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys news: Reports from the Dallas rookie camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

The question all Dallas Cowboys fans are asking after the NFL Draft is if the team is done adding at linebacker. That may sound greedy\u00a0given that Dallas\u2019 draft was a home run<\/a>, but it\u2019s impossible to overstate how awful the defense was last season, and poor linebacker play was a big reason why.\u00a0To the Cowboys\u2019 credit, they made it a point to address the position on Day 2, trading for vet Dee Winters, who started 17 games for the San Francisco 49ers<\/a> last season, and drafting Michigan\u2019s Jaishawn Barham.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear if Barham will start right away, but Cowboys fans can expect Winters to be suited and booted when Dallas takes the field in September. What remains to be seen with the former 49er, though, is if he\u2019ll wear the green dot for defensive coordinator Christian Parker.\u00a0In his introductory press conference, Winters admitted that, while he\u2019s willing to do anything that\u2019s asked of him, he has minimal experience with the green dot (h\/t Jon Machota,\u00a0The Athletic<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve only done a few practices with the green dot. That\u2019ll be new, but there\u2019s a first time for everything. I\u2019m willing to do whatever it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dallas Cowboys must sign Bobby Wagner to be their green dot linebacker\u00a0<\/p>\n

If there were\u00a0ever a time for Dallas to get Bobby Wagner<\/a>\u00a0on the phone, it\u2019s now.\u00a0 That\u2019s not to diminish Winters, but we all saw how poor the communication was last season. Matt Eberflus deserves a large share of the blame, but it has to be cleaned up. Christian Parker alone will make a major difference, but he still needs a defensive quarterback to relay calls and keep everyone aligned.<\/p>\n

Whether Winters can handle that responsibility is still to be determined, but he revealed Parker wants him playing in space to \u201crun and hit\u201d and unleash his physicality. That assignment is typically given to the WILL or weakside linebacker, whereas the MIKE or middle linebacker most commonly wears the green dot.\u00a0Enter Bobby Wagner.\u00a0 Approaching his 36th birthday, Wagner can\u2019t keep up in coverage like he once did, but his IQ remains as sharp as ever. When it comes to reading and reacting and navigating traffic against the run, you\u2019d be hard-pressed to name five linebackers better. Incredible when you consider his age.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The question all Dallas Cowboys fans are asking after the NFL Draft is if the team is done…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[82232,10371,34582,57210,1044,114,102,104,103,102151,17279,7710,18142,47829,20430,31067,18145,21830,32837,100134,13599,7001,6475,102514],"class_list":["post-277248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-bobby-wagner","tag-buffalo-bills","tag-caleb-downs","tag-christian-parker","tag-cowboys","tag-dak-prescott","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-damone-clark","tag-dee-winters","tag-demarvion-overshown","tag-jack-sanborn","tag-jaishawn-barham","tag-jaydon-blue","tag-josh-allen","tag-kenneth-murray","tag-linebacker","tag-marist-liufau","tag-marquez-valdes-scantling","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-seattle-seahawks","tag-shemar-james","tag-valdes-scantling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}