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Dallas Cowboys edge rusher Dante Fowler.

The Dallas Cowboys didn’t get much of a return on investment with edge rusher Dante Fowler in 2025 — a huge disappointment for a player coming off a 10.5-sack season with the Washington Commanders in 2024.

While Fowler’s struggles were reflective of the Cowboys’ struggles as a whole, there’s little to no chance he comes back on anything close to the 1-year, $8 million contract he signed in 2025.

That means Fowler is looking to go elsewhere, and that elsewhere could end up being with the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks.

Fowler had just 3.0 sacks in 2025 while playing all 17 games for the Cowboys, including 11 starts.

“Veteran pass rusher Dante Fowler visited Seahawks today,” NFL reporter Aaron Wilson wrote on his official X account on Thursday. 

Fowler, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2015 NFL draft, has a projected market value of a 1-year, $5.1 million contract according to Spotrac. That number might be a bit high, and the actual deal might be something more in the range of a 1-year, $3 million contract.

Cowboys Stole Fowler From Hated NFC East Rival

The Cowboys moved quickly to steal Fowler from their NFC East rival Commanders after Fowler helped lead Washington its first NFC Championship Game appearance since 1991.

“Fowler played for the Cowboys in 2022 and ’23 before leaving with former defensive coordinator Dan Quinn to the Washington Commanders last year and putting up 10.5 sacks,” ESPN’s Todd Archer wrote in March 2025. “Fowler’s deal is worth $6 million and can move to $8 million based on incentives.”

The Commanders were encouraged to offer Fowler a contract extension late in the season but they never made a serious move to keep him in th efold.

“One of the former Cowboys that Quinn lured over from Dallas, the 30-year-old has been impactful as a rotational edge-rusher this season,” Bleacher Report’s Matt Holder wrote in November 2025. “The Commanders should be looking to get younger on the edge, but Quinn knows what he has in Fowler. Extending an offer before Fowler hits the open market again would be sensible.”

Fowler Firmly in Journeyman Stage of Career

Fowler was a 2-time All-SEC pick at Florida before the Jacksonville Jaguars drafted him with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2015 NFL draft but his career got off to a terrible start when he tore his ACL on the first day of minicamp his rookie year and followed with a scandal, when he was illegally fined $700,000 by Executive VP and former head coach Tom Coughlin, which led to Coughlin’s firing in December 2019.

The Jaguars traded Fowler to the Los Angeles Rams midway through the 2018 season, where he played his way into a 1-year, $12 million contract in 2019 and a 3-year, $45 million contract with the Atlanta Falcons in 2020.

Fowler played in 2022 and 2023 on 1-year contracts with the Cowboys before signing with the Commanders. His 10.5 sacks were his highest total since having 11.5 sacks with the Rams in 2019.

The Cowboys have a shaky situation at edge rusher right now, although that could change in 1 week — the odds are they will use 1 of their 1st round picks at No. 12 and No. 20 overall on an edge rusher.