Dante Fowler must really loving living in Dallas.
The Dallas Cowboys thought so little of Fowler following the 2023 season they let him go to the Washington Commanders in free agency and didn’t even give it a second thought. How little did they think of Fowler? They didn’t bother to match the 1-year, $3.25 million contract he signed with the Commanders in March 2024.
What a difference a year makes.
Fowler’s return to Dallas in 2025 on a 1-year, $8 million free gent contract was singled out as the Cowboys’ “smartest offseason decision” by Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport following a career renaissance for Fowler on the Commanders in 2024. Fowler led the team with 10.5 sacks during the regular season and helped lead Washington to the NFC Championship Game for the first time since 1991.
“After splitting with veteran Demarcus Lawrence this offseason, the Cowboys had a significant need opposite star edge-rusher Micah Parsons,” Davenport wrote. “They filled that need by bringing back veteran Dante Fowler Jr. for a second stint with the team. Fowler’s ninth season was one of his best, as he tallied 10.5 sacks last year with the Washington Commanders … Fowler was a reasonably priced signing for a team not exactly swimming in cap space, and he’ll fill one of the Cowboys’ biggest needs.”
Commanders Missed Early Opportunity With Fowler
The Commanders were encouraged to offer Fowler a contract extension late in the season as he became one of the key defensive pieces on a team that advanced to the NFC Championship Game for the first time since 1991. Fowler played for Washington on a 1-year, $3.25 million contract in 2024.
“One of the former Cowboys that Quinn lured over from Dallas, the 30-year-old has been impactful as a rotational edge-rusher this season,” Bleacher Report’s Matt Holder wrote on November 27. “The Commanders should be looking to get younger on the edge, but Quinn knows what he has in Fowler. Extending an offer before Fowler hits the open market again would be sensible.”
The Commanders have already been criticized for their biggest move of the offseason so far — signing defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw to a 3-year, $45 million contract.
“Javon Kinlaw, I think, was the biggest shock deal early on,” The Ringer’s Steven Ruiz said on March 10. “Three years, $45 million for a player that has largely been forgotten since his days in San Francisco … Kinlaw was a free agent last year and signed a 1-year, $7 million contract and had 2 1/2 sacks in 12 games. He wasn’t even on my radar as a Top 50 free agent.”
Fowler Went From No. 3 Overall Pick to Journeyman
Fowler was a 2-time All-SEC pick at Florida before the Jacksonville Jaguars drafted him with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2015 NFL draft but his career got off to a terrible start when he tore his ACL on the first day of minicamp his rookie year and followed with a scandal, when he was illegally fined $700,000 by Executive VP and former head coach Tom Coughlin, which led to Coughlin’s firing in December 2019.
The Jaguars traded Fowler to the Los Angeles Rams midway through the 2018 season, where he played his way into a 1-year, $12 million contract in 2019 and a 3-year, $45 million contract with the Atlanta Falcons in 2020.
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