The Dallas Cowboys have selected linebacker Marist Liufau from Notre Dame with the 87th pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.
He has good size and made 25 starts over the last two years for the Irish.
He is a GREAT down hill player, he struggles in the pass game, but if he can get you going downhill, he is as good as any linebacker in this draft.
#NotreDame LB Marist Liufau thread:
Liufau is one of the players that I am most excited to watch at the Senior Bowl. He is 6'2'', 235lbs and runs a 4.60 40 yard dash. pic.twitter.com/C2ROox6Orh
— Dustin Mosher (@Dustin_Mosher) January 25, 2024
Drafting him was a need for this team. A bigger need than running back or wide receiver. My guess is Zeke is probably on his way back to Dallas and the Cowboys will bank on Jalen Tolbert making a nice jump in 2024.
Liufau could be a solid rotational linebacker for Dallas. He has a good frame with at least decent movement skills to help in coverage, and he has experience playing multiple linebacker spots in college, giving him some positional versatility.
https://twitter.com/PFF_Cowboys/status/1784050230167535919
Overall
The second day of the NFL Draft is now over, and I will say outside of the Marshawn Kneeland pick at 56, it was a productive day for the Dallas Cowboys.
Kneeland was one of the best available players on the board at that time, but I think they still had bigger needs than a player who won’t start day one.
The Cowboys don’t pick again until the 5th round so this might be the last we see of any players who could step in right away and get playing time early for Dallas.
We'll see how Cowboys LB Marist Liufau, a third-round pick, contributes on defense as a rookie. But he can be comfortably projected as a core special teamer from the jump. Trend of physicality on Day 2 for Dallas.
— Michael Gehlken (@GehlkenNFL) April 27, 2024
Nonetheless, a solid day for the Cowboys. Don’t let them not taking a running back get you down, they needed a linebacker more than a back at this point. They only had two on the depth chart, adding here was the smart pick.
Look for the Cowboys to take a RB and a WR the next time they are on the clock.
looks like Jerry Jones is focus on fixing the offensive line in the N.F.l. draft
And rightfully so. A strong OL makes average QB’s and RB’s look stellar. An average or worse OL makes even excellent QB’s and RB’s look average…or worse.
Tyron Smith became unreliable and then gone, with nothing but question marks behind him. Waletzko? Maybe, if he could get and stay healthy long enough to get some experience. Josh Ball? No, thanks. Richards? Doubtful since they wouldn’t even activate him last season. Shepley? Bostick? No and no. They’re barely roster fodder.
The great Zack Martin is getting dinged up more and more often, entering his mid-30’s and becoming more and more expensive, while looking more and more human every season.
Biadasz was average, but showed great hussle that bailed us out of a few predicaments but is now gone.
Steele is still working his way back to his slightly better-than-average self.
The bench has a couple of players that looked serviceable in spot duty in Bass and Hoffman. But, I wouldn’t call them sure things to make the OL stronger, especially if Tyler Smith is allowed to remain at LG and Martin stays healthy at RG.
IF Guyton can make the transition to LT, and I do have my doubts for the first year, that will at least solidify the left side for the foreseeable future. If nothing else, he’d be an improvement over last year’s version of Steele on the right side.
I love the Beebe pick. He’s got over 30lbs on Hoffman at the same height. He’s also got 20lbs on Biadasz and Martin, at the same height. Beebe is built solid and is stronger than either Hoffman or Biadasz. He might give up a bit of speed and agility to Biadasz, but not much to Hoffman. What he might lose in pulling ability, he more than makes up for in unmoveability at the front of the pocket and power to make holes in the center of the defense, which has been lacking the past few years. Holes that any decent RB can exploit, especially in short yardage. And, a solid pocket for the QB to step up into.
It appears that Mike Solari is trying to create a huge, solid, wall in Dallas ala S.F.’s, instead of the smallish, flexible, but capable, wall of years past.