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The Dallas Cowboys will turn up the intensity once the calendar flips to the final week of July. One rookie is turning heads in June 2025 organized team activities, though.
NFL OTAs are the equivalent of a teaser trailer dropping across the internet. It may be a small sample being shown, but it’s enough to spark intrigue. And one incoming first-year Cowboys defender has given Dallas a teaser of his potential.
Owner Jerry Jones and incoming head coach Brian Schottenheimer have a potential steal on their hands. This new Cowboys defender fell to day three of the NFL Draft. But reports are he’s pushing for immediate playing time.
Here’s who’s impressing during OTAs down in Frisco, Texas.
Selection No. 217 is making an immediate case to play, per multiple reports.
Toia fell to the seventh round. But he brings a needed skill to the front line, which he shared to Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Stop the run,” Toia said about his strength on May 28. “I feel like that’s one of the biggest reasons I was drafted and that’s exactly what I’m going to do is stop the run. That’s my biggest strength.”
Dallas and new defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus should welcome that trait greatly. The NFC East franchise fell to 29th against the run. Prompting Schottenheimer to lure in the former Chicago Bears head coach to run the defense. But also seek out defenders who can clog running lanes.
Toia earned “repeated work” with the first team Cowboys defenders on May 30, according to Timm Hamm of Athlon Sports.
“If he can prove to be as effective on Sundays as he was for the Bruins, then Dallas might’ve found competition for a disappointing pick two seasons ago,” Hamm wrote after watching the new defender go to work.
Sounds like the seventh rounder could be gunning for one former high draft pick.
It’s only OTAs. Training camp is still more than a month away. However, Toia clearly is taking his new surroundings seriously.
Including potentially pushing out one former first rounder.
Toia is showing early signs of going after Mazi Smith and his nose tackle spot. Smith arrived to Dallas two seasons ago out of Michigan. The massive Smith has shown flashes — but hasn’t lived up to his first round billing. Smith is one Dallas player with the most to prove during OTAs.
Smith faces a crucial season three. Jones hasn’t announced any decision of picking up his fifth-year rookie option. Now the arrival of the UCLA star complicates things for the former Wolverines star.
Dallas earned a B- grade for nabbing the 6-foot-2, 342-pounder. He brings a throwback nose tackle skillset into the trenches. The Inglewood, California native is hard to move in the middle off his girth. He’s attacked double teams off a wide base. Toia is additionally reliant on a menacing bull rush that collapses the interior...
