It was just a strange article.
I would understand if Long visited and said he "felt weird".
Nolan Carroll felt weird. Who felt weird?
Nolan.
What? Who?
Nevermind.
Actually, I understand why Carroll felt weird. The problem is the author trying to tie that to there being something offputting to free agents about Dallas when this is clearly a case of a player feeling strange about visiting a team that had been his rival. I guess in the writer's mind, Long and Moore must have felt weird, too, since they chose not to sign. I'm surprised he didn't make more out of Long not even showing up for dinner. That's how offputting coming to Dallas must have been for him.
If Dallas had thrown enough money at any of those players, that weird feeling would have gone away. Instead of looking at the fact that Jones is no longer the top bidder in FA, some have to come up with a reason why FA no longer want to come to Dallas.