Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

 The Dallas Cowboys are being billed as “an ideal destination” for linebacker Jordyn Brooks in NFL free agency, and we are left trying to be polite when we react by saying …

As soon as ESPN's Jeremy Fowler gets one of these Saturday gossip items right as it regards the Cowboys, we will give him full credit.

It is Fowler’s assertion that Dallas is "a good fit" for Brooks, and we will grant ESPN this: Brooks, who spent the first four seasons of his career with the Seattle Seahawks, is a solid player at a position of Dallas need.

Oh, and he’s a native Texan, for what that’s worth.

But there is a suggestion out there that Brooks is a “$45 million player,” and we presume that to mean $15 million APY ..   and while the Cowboys could be in the market for linebacking help as Leighton Vander Esch’s career is in injury jeopardy, Dallas is not in that market.

Dallas scrambled for help at the position last year, and here inside The Star, it’s acknowledged that under new coordinator Mike Zimmer, the group needs to get beefier … and the group needs to get more populated.

The 6-0, 240-pound Brooks, 26, has been a run-stopper and last year, coming off knee rehab, the Texas Tech product and former first-round pick recorded a career-high 4.5 sacks in 2023, with eight total tackles for loss.

But this whole thing smells like an agent playing footsie with ESPN to pump up the perceived value of a good player who if he gets $15 million per year, won’t be getting it from the team in North Texas.

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