New Cowboys coach Christian Parker's Eagles ties could spark a defensive raid. Can he lure three top Eagles talents to Dallas?
FRISCO - It’s easy and obvious to make the connection. Consider …
1 - The Dallas Cowboys, led by one-year-in head coach Brian Schottenheimer, just finished just 7-9-1 in 2025 in large part due to the NFL’s worst defense.
2 - Schotty & Company completed a search to replace the fired Matt Eberflus and landed on Philadelphia Eagles top assistant Christian Parker.
3 - The 34-year-old up-and-comer is respected in the Eagles locker room, where an assortment of standouts are poised to hit free agency.
4 - The Cowboys can create $110 million in 2026 cap room in order to sign free agents.
Obvious connections, right? Should the rival Eagles - the defending Super Bowl champs who just made history winning the NFC East again as the first back-to-back division winner in two decades - be worried that Parker will now lead an exodus from Philthy to Big D?
This is where “reality’’ conflicts a bit with “obvious.’’
We could go deep into Parker’s player connections that dot the NFL, even though he’s just 34. But for this exercise, let’s focus on a trio of Eagles that represent his most recent connections. That would be edge Jaelan Phillips, safety Reed Blankenship and linebacker Nakobe Dean.
Jaelen Phillips would register as a “get.’’ He’s still just age 26, and there were rumors that Dallas was exploring the idea of trading with Miami at last year’s deadline before Philly got him.
I project him as the No. 5 free agent in this class and predict he’ll get $17 million APY for four years.
But …
Is that too pricy for Dallas? Maybe. Does he have a real connection with Parker, given that he’s a D-lineman (while Parker worked primarily with DBs) and given that he was only in Philly for two months?
I bet the “connection’’ is more flimsy than some think.
Reed Blankenship is also a stud. He’s just 26, and he’s ready for his first big bite of the contractual apple.
I project him as the No. 25 free agent on the market and predict he’ll get $13 million APY for three years.
Do the Cowboys like to pay safeties? If you’ve read or heard me talk about their “hold down the fort’’ policy at the position, you know the answer is “no.’’
And that leaves Nakobe Dean … and as you read on, you’ll see why I’m spending extra time on him.
The linebacker group was one of the Cowboys’ biggest trouble spots this year, and every time they took a swing at a veteran (a spring trade for Kenneth Murray Jr., a speing free agent move on Jack Sanborn, a deadline trade on Logan Wilson)?
They swung and missed.
Some people think of Dean as a “bust.’’ I do not believe Dallas sees him that way.
For one thing, Dean is still just 25 years old, and his season, he was returning from a patellar injury sustained during the previous year’s Super Bowl run.
He has the college pedigree of having played at Georgia. He won the Butkus award on he way to being a third-round pick in 2022. And despite his ups and downs, he posted a career-high four sacks in eight games in 2025.
I’ve got Dean down as the No. 9 overall guy in this class because I think his next team is going to get him on the come. If he’s offered, as I predict, $15 million APY for four years? Maybe Dallas balks at that.
But pair him with a healthy disruptor in DeMarvion Overshown and all of a sudden the Cowboys’ front seven looks much more ready to compete.
Would I like to boost the Cowboys’ shaky secondary where safeties Malik Hooker and Donovan Wilson (a free agent) “hold down the fort’’? Sure, and Blankenship would do that.
Would I like to muscle up at defensive end, where Dallas’ roster presently has four free agents? Sure, and Phillips would do that.
But to me, Dean seems the most feasible of the Eagles group, and I do think the Cowboys need to go “retro’’ in their personnel thinking.
In the 1990 Super Bowl years, when NFC rivals Dallas and San Francisco were the NFL’s two best teams, they took turns trying to steal talent from one another.
Charles Haley, in 1992 (via trade), from there to here.
Ken Norton, in 1994, from here to there.
Deion Sanders, in 1995, from there to here.
I once asked then-Niners president Carmen Policy if there was an alternative-thinking depth to the specific signing of Norton.
“Absolutely,’’ he told me. “It’s a double-whammy. This makes the 49ers stronger and it makes the Cowboys weaker.’’
I think I might need to remind Jerry and Stephen Jones of this. Yes, Dallas should try to leverage Parker to steal some of the Eagles’ best defensive pieces as a way to seesaw this franchise back to the top of the NFC East.
In that sense, Christian Parker is more than just a coach. He might be a fulcrum point with allure.