Dallas Cowboys investing heavy combine resources into evaluating defensive front prospects
While the NFL Combine is far from the only opportunity for teams to sit down and meet with players in the upcoming draft class, it does serve as a solid opportunity to evaluate the incoming talent pool on a personal level.
All 32 NFL teams, including the Dallas Cowboys, are allotted 45 formal meetings with prospects during the week in Indianapolis. In the meeting, teams can spend 18 minutes getting to know a player and testing their knowledge within the game on the whiteboard or in a quick film study.
Of the 45 prospects that the Cowboys will talk to this week, at least 12 will come on the defensive front with linebackers and defensive linemen.
That list for the Cowboys includes Ole Miss defensive tackle Walter Nolen, Michigan defensive tackle Kenneth Grant, Georgia defensive end Mykel Williams, Ole Miss defensive end Princely Umanmielen, Oregon defensive end Jordan Burch, UCLA linebacker Carson Schwesinger, Oregon linebacker Jeffrey Bassa, Florida linebacker Shemar James, Oklahoma linebacker Danny Stutsman, Texas defensive tackle Alfred Collins, Clemson linebacker Barrett Carter and Clemson defensive tackle Payton Page.
Nolen has been mocked at No. 12 to the Cowboys by NFL.com’s Daniel Jeremiah, as he said it would be cool to return to Texas to play his professional ball after beginning his college career at Texas A&M. His family lives in the Houston suburb of The Woodlands.
While the Cowboys have missed on Michigan defensive linemen in the first round in the past (Taco Charlton was released after two seasons after being drafted in 2017 and Mazi Smith has yet to live up to his first-round billing from 2023), Grant would be a swing worth taking. The big-bodied nosetackle said that his first priority is to stop the run as a defensive tackle, something the Cowboys desperately need in the interior.
Burch said that his meeting with the Cowboys was a “great meeting overall” where they broke down some of his good plays and some of the bad from his senior season at Oregon.
Edwards, who said he played most of the season at Georgia last year with an ankle issue that limited him to “60-percent,” didn’t get into his meeting with the Cowboys but put on a big smile when asked about the possibility of landing in Dallas.
The meeting for James was a special one, as he was able to meet with the team that his family grew up rooting for in his hometown of Mobile, Ala. He said he enjoyed exchanging knowledge with the Dallas coaches.
Resources on defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus’ defensive front are being invested at the combine early in the week, as the Cowboys could be looking to replace starting linebacker Eric Kendricks, starting defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa, starting defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence and rotational defensive ends Chauncey Golston and Carl Lawson when free agency hits next month.
This story was originally published February 26, 2025 at 1:39 PM.
