The Dallas Cowboys made a move at the trade deadline that was supposed to fix their linebacker problem. Instead, it created a new one and now they’re cutting their losses, literally.
The Cowboys waived veteran linebacker Logan Wilson on Friday, a move that frees up $6.5 million in salary cap space but also closes the book on one of the more forgettable acquisitions of the season. For a team that gave up a 2026 seventh-round pick to the Cincinnati Bengals to land Wilson, the return on investment was about as disappointing as Dallas’ season overall.
How it all went wrong
Wilson arrived in Frisco with a respectable résumé. In parts of five seasons with the Bengals, he started 65 games, intercepted 11 passes, and was a key figure in Cincinnati’s run to Super Bowl LVI, where they fell to the Los Angeles Rams. He was also voted a team captain in 2025 a detail that makes the circumstances of his departure from Cincinnati all the more interesting. Despite that recognition, Wilson was benched in favor of rookie Barrett Carter, which ultimately triggered the trade.
The hope in Dallas was that a proven veteran would stabilize a linebacker corps that had been a weak link all season. That didn’t happen. In seven games with the Cowboys, Wilson recorded 28 tackles and a forced fumble but managed only a single start. The coaching staff consistently chose to keep Kenneth Murray Jr. as the starter over Wilson, signaling that the acquisition never quite fit the way the front office anticipated.
The Christmas Day moment that said everything
If there was a single snapshot that captured how sideways things went, it came on Christmas Day against the Washington Commanders. Wilson did not play a single snap in that game a fact the coaching staff later acknowledged was a coaches’ error. Getting frozen out entirely during a nationally televised holiday game isn’t exactly the highlight reel Wilson was hoping to build in Dallas.
The Cowboys won that game, which might have temporarily masked the awkwardness of the situation. But the writing was already on the wall. A player acquired specifically to address a positional need, not seeing the field in a meaningful game, tells you everything about how the experiment was going behind the scenes.
What this means for Dallas going forward
Releasing Wilson accomplishes two things simultaneously. It clears $6.5 million in cap space that the Cowboys can redirect toward more pressing offseason needs, and it officially acknowledges that the trade deadline gamble didn’t pan out. Dallas paid a draft pick and nearly a full season’s worth of cap space for a player who started once in seven games.
The linebacker position remains a question mark heading into the offseason. Murray held onto the starting job throughout Wilson’s tenure, but the Cowboys’ defense as a whole struggled significantly this season meaning the position group likely needs more than just a returning starter to get right in 2026.
For Wilson, the waiver wire opens a new chapter. At 28, he still has the track record and the physicality to earn another opportunity somewhere in the league. A player who was a captain in Cincinnati and a contributor on a Super Bowl roster isn’t done he just needs a situation where he’s actually going to play.
The Cowboys, meanwhile, chalk this one up as a lesson in deadline acquisitions. Not every trade fix actually fixes anything, and sometimes the cost of finding that out is a draft pick and $6.5 million you’d love to have back.
