Dallas Cowboys no longer have ‘much’ interest in Brian Urlacher, Jonathan Vilma

The Dallas Cowboys are looking to replace injured star linebacker Sean Lee, but their options are incredibly thin at this point in time. Their internal candidates might be best-suited for the job, but ESPN’s Ed Werder reported earlier today that the Cowboys are looking to get a two-man rotation going in order to replace Lee. That platoon would likely involve a veteran linebacker, and the Cowboys were reportedly looking at “all options”. It seems like they were pretty serious about scouring the free agent market, because Werder reported that they were even looking at way-past-their-prime LBs Brian Urlacher and Jonathan Vilma. Those two were once top-notch linebackers in that league, but that was so long ago that they would be NFL dinosaurs if signed now; those two are already relics of the past.

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Now, Werder reports that the Cowboys, predictably, don’t have “much” interest in either Urlacher or Vilma after internal discussions and some tape evaluation. Both players were dreadful in their last seasons in the league, and neither of them can get off of blocks on a consistent basis and stop downhill runs. Urlacher can probably still cover due to his incredibly unique athleticism, but who knows how well his coverage ability is at this point.

The Cowboys would have been better off sticking with what they have over adding either Urlacher or Vilma, who would have probably been disastrous even in a platoon situation due to their struggles in run defense. It will be interesting to see what the Cowboys decide to do, but it’s clear that the Cowboys were simply kicking the tires very loosely on those two.