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Jerry Jones with Mark Davis.

The Las Vegas Raiders inadvertently had a major impact on the Dallas Cowboys’ offseason. Dallas’ offense is set. They have very strong offensive personnel on the roster.

However, the defense was a disaster last season. The Cowboys allowed 30.1 points a game, which was the worst in the NFL. The team had a desire to fix things this offseason.

One of the big positions of need was linebacker, and they were eager to spend money. Unfortunately for them, the Raiders also had a big need at linebacker. According to The Athletic’s Jon Machota, the Cowboys targeted Nakobe Dean and Quay Walker in free agency, who both signed in Las Vegas.

“It would be nice to have a team captain-type green dot linebacker,” Machota wrote.
“The Cowboys obviously wanted one, making a run at Nakobe Dean, Quay Walker and Devin Lloyd in free agency. I don’t think the defense will be overhyped by most because most aren’t expecting it to be elite after the disaster that was last season. It should be noticeably better, but expectations have to be reasonable.”

The Raiders gave Walker and Dean a combined $76.5 million with their contracts, so they spent big to convince them to come.

Dean Picked Raiders Over Similar Offer From Cowboys

It’s unclear what the Cowboys were willing to pay Walker, but it has been reported that they offered a similar contract to Dean that the Raiders gave him. NFL Network’s Jane Slater had the details after the signing.

“I’m told their offer was similar to the Raiders but ultimately he went with his gut feeling but was told he could have seen himself in both places and it was ’51/49′ margin but Raiders won this one,” Slater wrote on X.

The Cowboys are likely closer to being a Super Bowl contender than the Raiders are, but Dean clearly likes what they’re building. Walker seemingly felt the same way.

Cowboys Also Wanted Maxx Crosby

Another reason the Cowboys have to be irked with the Raiders involves defensive end Maxx Crosby. They were one of the teams that were heavily involved with a possible trade, per ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.

“The Raiders had two teams willing to swing for the fence [Crosby]; the Cowboys and the Ravens,” Fowler said on “SportsCenter” in March.

“The Ravens were willing to give up the two first-round picks, the Cowboys simply were not and I was told the Cowboys were low key devastated. They really wanted Maxx Crosby. They were eyeing him for months, but they just had a tipping point. It was a first-round pick and a second-round pick. They tried to involve a veteran player or two to sweeten the deal. The Raiders didn’t want to that. They simply wanted the youth and the draft picks.”

The Crosby deal with the Ravens fell apart, and the Cowboys didn’t seem interested in getting back in trade talks for the defensive end. Dallas’ defense would look a lot different with Crosby, Dean and Walker on it. Now the Raiders have three, so it’ll be interesting to see how improve their defense can be.