Like many teams this time of year, the Cowboys are making sure they have all the help they’ll need to get through training camp later this month. Dallas reportedly kicked the tires on former Texas LB Malik Jefferson Friday, having the former 3rd-round pick in for a workout.
Low on linebackers with Jabril Cox and Damone Clark recovering from surgeries, plus losing Devante Bond to an injury last month, Dallas is needing to stock up before entering the rigors of training camp in just a few weeks. They signed Christian Sam a couple of days ago and then held the workout for Jefferson and other free agents.
A highly-decorated linebacker during his Longhorn days, Jefferson became the 78th pick in the 2018 NFL Draft with the Bengals. He was the Big 12 Co-Defensive Player of the Year and a second-team All-American in 2017
Things didn’t work out for Jefferson in Cincinnati. He was relegated to a special teams role, playing on 11 defensive snaps, before a foot injury cut his rookie season to just 12 games. He wound up not even making the roster the following year.
Malik has since bounced around the Browns, Chargers, Titans, and Colts’ practice squads the last three seasons.
Jefferson has the physical gifts to play in any system and at least help on special teams. His seeming issue, going back to pre-draft scouting, is with the mental side of the game.
If he even gets signed by Dallas Jefferson may only be here to help facilitate training camp and take some of the workload off of the real prospects. But compared to rookies like Devin Harper, Aaron Hansford, and Storey Jackson, Malik would enter the competition with four years of professional experience and hopefully some of the upside that once made him a Day 2 draft talent.
We’ll see if Malik Jefferson winds up signing with his hometown team. Born, raised, and collegiately trained in Texas, it would likely be a dream on top of a dream to continue his NFL journey with the Cowboys.
