Scratch running back Javonte Williams from the list of 2026 free agents.
According to multiple reports, Williams has agreed to a new three-year deal in Dallas. The pact is worth $24 million with $16 million in guaranteed money.
Williams signed a one-year deal with the Cowboys after leaving the Broncos as a free agent last year. He ran 252 times for 1,201 yards and 11 touchdowns while catching 35 passes for 137 yards and two scores.
The attempts, rushing yards and rushing touchdowns were all career highs for Williams, which makes it easy to understand why he’d sign up for another year in the Cowboys offense.
With Williams back in the fold, the Cowboys can turn more of their attention to trying to hold onto wide receiver George Pickens for years to come as well.
The Cowboys waived linebacker Logan Wilson on Friday, the team announced.
The move will save the team $6.5 million against the salary cap.
The Cowboys traded with the Bengals for Wilson at the trade deadline, giving up a seventh-round pick.
Wilson played 224 snaps in seven games, one of those a start, and totaled 24 tackles, a forced fumble and a pass defensed. He had no snaps in the Week 16 game against the Commanders.
The Bengals benched Wilson for rookie Barrett Carrett, prompting the veteran to ask for a trade. In eight games with Cincinnati, Wilson had 46 tackles and four pass breakups.
The Bengals made Wilson a third-round pick in 2020, and he started 65 of 76 games he played for the team.
The Cowboys have played a 4-3 defense for most of their history. All five Super Bowls they have won in their history came with a 4-3 defense.
They will play a 3-4 base this season, new defensive coordinator Christian Parker said Wednesday.
“First thing, we’re going to be multiple,” Parker said, via Schuyler Dixon of the Associated Press. “I think that whenever you form a defensive structure it’s about the players that you have. So our core principles we’ll be a 3-4 by nature, 4-3 spacing will be appropriate, 4-2-5 in nickel different front structures, coverages behind it. But I will say being multiple is probably the most important thing about it.”
It marks the first time the Cowboys have played a 3-4 base defense since 2012 under Rob Ryan. DeMarcus Ware had 11.5 sacks that season, his next-to-last in Dallas.
The Cowboys initially moved to a 3-4 in 2005, Bill Parcells’ third season, and stayed in that defense until 2013 when Monte Kiffin replaced Ryan as defensive coordinator. Mike Nolan ran a hybrid system in 2020, and the Cowboys allowed the most points in team history (473) until 2025 (511) when Matt Eberflus’ unit allowed more.
The Cowboys fired Eberflus after one season.
Parker groomed under Vic Fangio with the Eagles, Vance Joseph with the Broncos, Mike Pettine with the Packers and Mike Elko at Notre Dame and Texas A&M. All four ran a 3-4 structure.
“I think once you get past that from the fronts, you build and the coverages you do, personality on third down, red zone, you definitely have a mentality as a play-caller, but I think it still has to be designed around the players that you have,” Parker said. “I have little nuances that I’ve taken from each one of them and even people outside of that. I’ve had extensive studies when you build relationships outside of the circle you’ve been in, you want to incorporate them into.”
The Cowboys’ defensive line is the strength, with Quinnen Williams, Kenny Clark and Osa Odighizuwa. They kept Odighizuwa on an $80 million contract last offseason, traded for Clark in the Micah Parsons trade with the Packers and acquired Williams in an in-season deal with the Jets.
“The game is definitely won and lost up front,” Parker said. “We have significant players in the front seven, and so I think when you start with that defensive line room and what you’re able to do in controlling the pocket, stopping the run, control what an offense is able to do and if you’re able to dictate to them on their terms so you’re not playing the whole playbook on first and second down. I think it starts there.
“That’s where the excitement starts. There’s several other pieces that have been proven playmakers. We look forward to kind of bringing it all together in the next couple of months.”
With the Scouting Combine less than a week ago, the NFL’s hiring process is coming to a close.
The Cowboys announced the completion of their staff a day after introducing new defensive coordinator Christian Parker. While the Cowboys’ offensive staff remained mostly intact, Parker hired his own staff.
That created turnover on the defensive side.
Here are the newcomers to the team’s defensive staff:
- Christian Parker - Defensive coordinator
- Ryan Smith - Secondary coach
- Derrick Ansley - Defensive pass game coordinator/DBs
- Marcus Dixon - Defensive line coach
- Demeitre Brim - Assistant defensive line coach
- Chidera Uzo-Diribe - Outside linebackers coach
- Scott Symons - Inside linebackers coach
- Robert Muschamp - Assistant secondary coach
In addition, assistant linebackers coach J.J. Clark will return for a second season with the Cowboys.
The only changes to the offensive staff were the additions of Kyle Fuller as assistant offensive line coach/quality control coach and Stephen Bravo-Brown as assistant wide receivers coach.
It became clear early in the 2025 season that the Cowboys would need to overhaul their defense this offseason and the first big step in that process was the move to hire Christian Parker as their new defensive coordinator.
Parker got a chance to lay out some of his approach during a press conference on Wednesday. One of the questions he faced was how quickly he thinks he’ll be able to turn around a unit that allowed the most points in the league last year and Parker declined to put any timetable on how long it will take to rebuild the unit.
“I don’t think we want to put any expectations on it in that regard,” Parker said. “I think we just want to kind of take it day by day and do it the right way. So, we’re kind of just taking that approach. We’ll get our head out of the sand at some point, but right now we got tunnel vision on doing things the right way.”
One of the criticisms of last year’s defense was that previous coordinator Matt Eberflus didn’t build his scheme around the skills of the players on hand. Parker said that stopping the run and affecting the quarterback are the pillars of any defense, but that he’s not beholden to any particular way of making that happen.
“I think you build it around the players,” Parker said. “Of course, you want to have your core principles and foundational beliefs. But, as you kind of move forward in the process, what do your guys do well? How can you put players in highlighted positions, create one-on-ones for certain guys? How can you protect certain guys? If we can win on blitzs on a running back, then we’re going to blitz a lot. If we got good man-to-man corners, we’re going to play man. If we’re better than zone vision, we’ll play more zone. You want to build a package that has diversity in scheme and then you want to tailor it to the players you have.”
The identity of all of those players won’t be known for some time, but the hope in Dallas is that Parker can mold any group into a more effective one than the Cowboys put on the field last year.
