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Already set to be a busy day at The Star, free agent defensive lineman Malik McDowell will also be visiting the Dallas Cowboys later on Tuesday. McDowell was the No. 35 pick in the 2017 NFL draft, but has yet to make his professional debut after spending two seasons on injured reserve for the Seattle Seahawks.
Unfortunately shortly after McDowell was drafted, he was involved in a mysterious ATV accident which has robbed him of his NFL career thus far. Dallas had shown interest in McDowell during the 2017 draft process.
DE Malik McDowell will visit Cowboys on Tuesday a source tells @TheAthleticDFW
— Calvin Watkins (@calvinwatkins) March 18, 2019
The interest from the Cowboys certainly makes sense, given their recent track record focusing in on players with major injury concerns who could be attained for bargain deals.
McDowell was ranked among the top DT prospects of his class and was one of the Cowboys’ vaunted 30 pre-draft visits that season. He had numerous red flags before the ATV accident.
From our article addressing his late-draft-season visit:
Two years later, the Cowboys are investigating bringing in the player on a free agent deal that would not lock them into keeping a disruptive player.
Not much his known about his overall health, let alone what he can offer on the field anymore, which is the purpose of an in-person meeting.
The Cowboys are an extremely patient franchise, and certainly aren’t strangers to taking risks on players-especially interior pass rushers.
Gallery
Cowboys 7-round Mock Draft: March 15, 2019
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Unfortunately shortly after McDowell was drafted, he was involved in a mysterious ATV accident which has robbed him of his NFL career thus far. Dallas had shown interest in McDowell during the 2017 draft process.
DE Malik McDowell will visit Cowboys on Tuesday a source tells @TheAthleticDFW
— Calvin Watkins (@calvinwatkins) March 18, 2019
The interest from the Cowboys certainly makes sense, given their recent track record focusing in on players with major injury concerns who could be attained for bargain deals.
McDowell was ranked among the top DT prospects of his class and was one of the Cowboys’ vaunted 30 pre-draft visits that season. He had numerous red flags before the ATV accident.
From our article addressing his late-draft-season visit:
Talent-wise, McDowell is easily one of the Top 10 players in the draft. He can play up and down the defensive line, and has a wide array of pass rush moves that can get him into the backfield with little effort. He shows this singled up and also against double-teams. Against the run he disengages from blocks easily and has the requisite speed to chase down plays going away from him. Not only does he have the tools to win on individual plays, he shows an understanding of the game and the ability to string together [moves] that set up offensive linemen.
That’s when he’s locked in. When McDowell’s not locked in, which has been far too often for some people’s tastes, it’s a disaster of freelancing and lack of discipline that leave his teammates at severe disadvantages.
McDowell had just 1.5 sacks in his final year in East Lansing, after 3.5 sacks in 2015.
The freelancing might not be the most troubling part of the story on McDowell. According to Optimum Scouting’s draft guide, McDowell has been seen as a cancer in the locker room, getting into fights with teammates and generally not leaving a good impression on the coaching staff. For a team that saw divisiveness up close and personal with their one-year experiment of Greg Hardy, McDowell might not be the type of player Dallas wants to add back to the mix.
They knew they could walk away from Hardy after a year, which they did. Drafting McDowell locks him in for at least three or four seasons. That’s a big risk.
Two years later, the Cowboys are investigating bringing in the player on a free agent deal that would not lock them into keeping a disruptive player.
Not much his known about his overall health, let alone what he can offer on the field anymore, which is the purpose of an in-person meeting.
The Cowboys are an extremely patient franchise, and certainly aren’t strangers to taking risks on players-especially interior pass rushers.
Gallery
Cowboys 7-round Mock Draft: March 15, 2019
Continue reading...