Bobby Wagner Sets Price; Cowboys Give Final Answer on Signing Him
PALM BEACH, Fla. - All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner has set his asking price.
Are the Dallas Cowboys still in?
UPDATE: Nope.
Cowboys COO Stephen Jones told us Tuesday here in Palm Beach at the NFL annual meetings that “it just didn’t work out.”
It was an odd moment, because Jones spoke as if Wagner had signed elsewhere, which he had not.
But it’s now quite clear he’s not signing here.
Wagner spent Friday making a free agency visit to the Baltimore Ravens after the former Seahawks star visited his hometown Los Angeles Rams.
Dallas, as CowboysSI.com was first to report, has also made contact.
And now, this from Peter King of NBC Sports: “The Rams have legitimate interest, but not at Wagner’s price—he’s thought to be asking for about $11 million on a one-year deal. The 32-year-old linebacker is still playing very well, and he’d be a luxury item for the Super Bowl champs. If he wants to stay in the same division as the team that dropped him, Seattle, Wagner will have to recalibrate his asking price down.
“He may just find another team—Baltimore? Dallas?—with more money available.”
Wagner's hometown team in L.A. hasn’t yet closed a deal with him. So he gets to continue shopping himself ... looking, he says, for one thing.
"I just want to win," Wagner said to TMZ Sports as he arrived Wednesday at LAX Airport.
In fairness to any contender for his services, no team has done more winning than the Rams, with two Super Bowl appearances in the last four seasons, a recent title, and seeming continued success in free agency and offseason moves.
Wagner was asked by TMZ for his thoughts on the Rams situation.
"Sounds good!" he replied.
So why had their come word that there is "no momentum'' in talks with Dallas? Or the the Ravens or the Rams, apparently?
Ultimately, in addition to "winning,'' this is more about "finance'' than "fit.'' That goes for the Rams, the Cowboys, the Ravens, all of them.
Wagner is a do-it-all talent, an iconic Seahawk, and a future Hall of Fame guy. Is he going downhill as a performer? He will turn 32 in June, so that's coming. But last season, Wagner posted a career-high 170 tackles in 16 games played, also recording a sack and an interception.
"Fit''? Yeah, he fits.
"Finance''? Wagner is still on the market in part, logic says, due to his price tag. He is coming off a contract that was paying him $18 million APY.
In his mind, $11 million is therefore a bargain.
© Provided by Sporting News
The Cowboys have the cap room to do something big, in part as a result of the Randy Gregory fiasco. Bobby Wagner would be big. For Dallas ... but also for the Rams and the Ravens and anybody else he views as a "winner.''
And for anybody else ready to pay him $11 million. But … not Dallas.
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