Continuing our look at the leftover scraps concerning the Cowboys lower-round draft picks, we focus on offensive lineman David Arkin. Arkin was a small-school guy who slipped under the radar when he was coming out of high school, and slipped under a lot of our radars in the run up to the draft. But the versatile lineman out of Missouri State (selected in the 4th round) was receiving plenty of praise from scouts before the draft.
So why did Arkin end up at a small school coming out of high school?
He had only a handful of offers out of Kapaun Mt. Carmel Catholic High in Wichita, Kan. -- and MSU was the only one above NCAA Division II.
Weighing about 270 pounds as a high school senior, Arkin called himself "an above-average, but not really special" high school player. "I played a lot of defense and got some accolades, but never was a highly regarded guy, I guess," he said.
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Once he got to Missouri State, he grew into his body and blossomed into a force on the offensive line. One of the attributes mentioned about Arkin repeatedly is his versatility.
Arkin played right guard his first three seasons at Missouri State before switching to left tackle last year. He said most teams are considering him a guard.
He also got some games in against the big boys of college football and acquitted himself very well.
While Arkin played mostly against competition in the Missouri Valley Conference, he also has video to show from games against Kansas State, Oklahoma State and Arkansas.
''I got a good opportunity to show against some Division I schools,'' Arkin said. ''It's not that big of a jump in competition. I played in the East-West Shrine game and I felt like I hung with those guys so I'm excited to show how I compare to these guys.''
He's a big fan of run-blocking, claiming that it better fits his football-personality of being aggressive, rather than retreating and giving up ground in pass-blocking. He talks about in this article which is a good read and has lots of quotes from him.
...on pancake blocking: That’s the goal on every play. It usually happens during a run block, which suits my personality a little better. You have to be a little more passive in pass blocking which isn’t quite me. In run blocking you have to beat the guy to the spot, be physical, get up under their pads, run your feet and work your hips and finish. That’s like getting a 10/10 or an A+ on that play. If there was one guy I would want to pancake it would be Vince Wilfork of the New England Patriots. He is such a huge, strong human being. I don’t think many people can get him on his back so if you can it would be impressive.
A long video of Arkin where he answers a lot of questions.
Admittedly, I hadn't heard much about Arkin before the Cowboys selected him. He may or may not ever start, but he at least seems like he has a shot as a primary backup.