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The Cowboys had nine undrafted free agents on their roster starting at least one game in 2015: Tony Romo, Barry Church, La'el Collins, Ronald Leary, Tyler Clutts, Kellen Moore, Ayodeji Olatoye, Tyler Patmon, Jeff Heath, and Lucky Whitehead all went undrafted and took a sometimes circuitous route to the NFL. Add special teamers Dan Bailey and Chris Jones, as well as other contributors like David Irving and Lance Dunbar, and the Cowboys have been quite successful in bringing in undrafted free agents over the years.
And one of the reasons for the Cowboys success with UDFAs is that Chris Hall, director of college scouting for the Cowboys and the guy with the long hair on the bottom right of the war room camera over the last three days, doesn’t allow scouts to "come off grade". If they have a grade on a guy before the draft, they have to stick with it after the draft. Which means that after the draft, they try and sign every guy still left on their draft board, as they feel those players effectively amount to extra draft picks.
And that's why we also make a point of tracking these UDFA signings. Full disclaimer here before you go any further: tracking and confirming actual signings of undrafted free agents can be tricky. The sources of these transactions come from all over, Twitter included, and sometimes they are not 100% reliable. Also, all reported deals are agreements, and players could back out of deals over next few days. Although this would be unusual for Cowboys agreements, it happens across the league every year, as the Cowboys found out the hard way last year when they thought they had an agreement with RB Thomas Rawls, who ended up with the Seahawks.
So, with that in mind, below is a list of players who have been reported to have signed with your Dallas Cowboys.
Refresh often, as we will be updating this thread as news comes out.
Rank | Player | POS | School | Height | Weight | |
262 |
Chris Brown |
WR | Notre Dame | 6-2 | 194 | |
303 |
Jake Brendel |
C | UCLA | 6-4 | 303 | |
516 | Deon King* | LB | Norfolk State | 6-0 | 218 | |
595 |
Arjen Colquhoun |
CB | Michigan State | 6-0 | 188 | |
601 | Ed Eagan | WR | Northwestern (LA) State | 5-10 | 192 | |
754 | Ryan Mack | OT | Memphis | 6-4 | 300 | |
786 | Caleb Azubike |
DE | Vanderbilt | 6-4 | 250 | |
806 |
Rolan Milligan |
SS | Toledo | 5-10 | 195 | |
847 | Andy Jones | WR | Jacksonville (Fl) | 6-1 | 217 | |
848 | Jeremiah McKinnon | CB | Florida International | 5-11 | 190 | |
911 |
Boston Stiverson |
OG | Kansas State | 6-3 | 311 |
|
- - |
Rodney Coe* |
DT | Akron | 6-3 | 305 | |
- - |
Jason Neill |
DT | UTSA | 6-2 | 266 | |
- - |
David Hedelin |
OT | Purdue | 6-4 | 298 | |
Mini-camp invite | ||||||
835 | Austin Traylor | TE | Wisconsin | 6-3 | 250 | |
- - |
Chris Brown |
QB/WR | Cal Poly | 6-2 | 205 | |
- - |
Tory Slater |
DT | West Georgia | 6-5 | 290 | |
- - | Justin Tukes | TE | Central Florida | 6-4 | 259 | |
- - | Sam Moeller | S | Texas A&M | 5-10 | 195 | |
- - | Zach Wood | DE/LS | SMU | 6-3 | 282 | |
- - | Taylor Cox | RB | Kansas | 5-11 | 206 | |
- - | Ja'Juan Story | WR | TCU | 6-4 | 208 | |
- - | Mandel Dixon | TE/FB | Tulsa | 6-2 | 240 |
'Rank' is per the CBSSports big board
(*) denotes players who had a pre-draft visit or workout with the Cowboys
Some notable highlights among this group:
Notre Dame receiver Chris Brown (6-1, 195) caught 48 passes for 597 yards and four touchdowns last year, but was overshadowed by fellow WR Will Fuller.
Center Jack Brendel out of UCLA got a glowing review from NFL.com: "Brendel brings everything you'd want in a center: leadership (three-time co-captain), intelligence (first-team Academic All-Conference pick), reliability (four-year starter), and production (second-team All-Pac-12 pick in 2014 and 2015). Brendel isn’t as strong or athletic as some NFL teams prefer in the pivot, but others will value his other traits and willingness to get after his man in the run game enough to consider him a potential starter."
Norfolk State linebacker Deon King and led all NCAA football teams last year with 163 tackles.
Michigan State CB Arjen Colquhoun started 11 games for the Spartans last year, recording a career-high 45 tackles, 12 passes defended, 10 pass break-ups, two interceptions and two forced fumbles. The Canadian native was ranked No. 5 overall on the Canadian Football League's December Scouting list and was expected to be picked high in the 2016 CFL Draft.
Northwestern State receiver Ed Eagan (5-11, 192) is a premier kick returner. He finished as the school's all-time leader in career receptions (177), receiving yards (2,228), all-purpose yards (5,651). He was also the school's leader leader in kickoff returns (125), single-season kickoff return yards (1,045), single-season kickoff attempts (45), and kickoff returner yards (2,922). Eagan had initially committed to the Bills, but Jason Garrett, his coach at the Senior Bowl, convinced him to come to Dallas.
Vanderbilt DE Caleb Azubike didn't put up great numbers in Vanderbilt's 3-4 defense, but should look much better in a 4-3 scheme.
Toledo's Rolan Milligan played some JUCO ball in California before having the second-most tackles on the UAB roster in 2014 (54) with six pass breakups. OWhen that program shut down, he moved to Toledo, where the 5-foot-11 safety had 48 tackles as a senior, four for loss. He also had two interceptions, five passes defended, and forced three fumbles.
Jacksonville State receiver Andy Jones recorded a 41.5-inch vertical jump, which would have tied him with Jalen Ramsey and Daniel Lasco for the best performance at the Combine.
Boston Stiverson, who played left guard at Kansas State, twice earned honorable mention All-Big 12 honors, lining up at guard next to LT Cody Whitehair, who was picked in the second round by the Bears.
Akron DT Rodney Coe was one of the players brought to Dallas for an official visit. Like Henry Melton, Coe is a former running back who's transitioned to DT.
David Hedelin is from Sweden, and took a circuitous route to the NFL. As a JuCo transfer, he was in Purdue for only two years, but he was a 4-star recruit. He had to sit the first few games of his junior season due to an NCAA suspension for playing for a club team in his native Sweden. Then he missed the final two games of 2015 due to a concussion, so he played in less than 20 games for Purdue.