One of the weakest areas on the Dallas Cowboys roster entering the 2025 NFL campaign is in the secondary. The team has been decimated by injuries over the past year, and it has left the unit relatively thin.
With players recovering from injury, it has opened up opportunities for players who are fighting to earn their spots on the roster.
One of those players is promising undrafted free agent safety Alijah Clark, who signed with the Cowboys after the 2025 NFL draft out of Syracuse.
Good Start
From what I have seen and read on Twitter, Clark looked pretty good both in videos, and by word of mouth.
During some of the OTA work starting safety, Malik Hooker, had an injury on Tuesday, which then allowed Clark to jump in with the first-team defense and get some reps.
If you did not know, Clark is currently the Dallas Cowboys’ highest-paid undrafted free agent.
He is set to earn a $234,000 guaranteed salary, and was granted a $25,000 signing bonus.
“With Hooker out, UDFA safeties Alijah Clark and Mike Smith got some run with the first team alongside Juanyeh Thomas,” Tommy Yarrish of DallasCowboys.com wrote on X. “Israel Mukuamu played some outside corner with Andrew Booth absent.”
Throughout his college career, Clark, who ran a 4.5 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine, recorded 189 tackles, 12 tackles for a loss, two interceptions, nine passes defensed, two fumble recoveries, and one forced fumble.
Some notes from OTA #3 practice for the #Cowboys:
– Got our first couple live targets for George Pickens. One on a deep ball in 11 on 11 that was underthrown and broken up by Kaiir Elam, the other in the scramble drill in 7 on 7 where Pickens caught the ball falling out of…
— Tommy Yarrish (@tommy_yarrish) June 3, 2025
Clark very well could have been drafted, but safety is not normally a major position of need on team boards, and he just fell through.
The Cowboys’ minicamp will begin on Tuesday, June 10, so it will be interesting to see if Clark continues to impress and whether the coaching staff will continue putting him in a position to succeed.
Secondary Outlook
As I noted above, one of the weakest units this team has is probably in the secondary as of right now.
Dallas’ performance in run defense was among the NFL’s worst. Only Carolina posted a lower PFF run-defense grade. Linebacker Eric Kendricks and safety Malik Hooker were the Cowboys’ only qualified players to earn at least a 70.0 PFF run-defense grade.
One of the most important defenders for the Dallas Cowboys is battling back from a torn ACL, and from the looks of it, it sounds like Trevon Diggs might be ahead of schedule.
Great news for the Cowboys secondary.
Diggs tore his ACL after two games in 2023 and suffered an injury on the same knee in December 2024. He was sent to the IR after 11 games, meaning he’s suited up for just 13 over the past two years.
DaRon Bland is the only other guy you can really depend on in that cornerback room right now. Third-round rookie Shavon Revel Jr. was supposed to be a first-round pick, but he is also recovering from an ACL tear like Diggs.
A guy like Clark may be needed to play in the secondary and hold it down if these injuries continue to mount.
Alijah Clark to the #Cowboys in UDFA.
Stands 6-foot-1 and is 79th percentile in wingspan, and 44 games played for the Orange. https://t.co/4AEalzD2S0
— Patrik [No C] Walker (@VoiceOfTheStar) April 27, 2025
He is the highest-paid undrafted free agent on this team for a reason.
Matt Eberflus is the new defensive coordinator for Dallas, and by the sounds of it, he is already doing a lot of good things with this defense. He has players buying in. Seems like the entire new staff has players enjoying being a Dallas Cowboy now.
Eberflus typically runs a 4-3 defense, known for its emphasis on a strong defensive line and a “bend but don’t break” approach.
He also utilizes a lot of zone coverage, particularly Cover 2 and Tampa 2, and is known for not heavily disguising his coverages.
It is going to be a very interesting summer for this team that acually made a couple of moves for once.
I’ve been hearing that Matt Eberflus has been working on disguising his coverages now, so it looks like he’s trying to do something different from what you said at the end of your column!! But as long as it works, that’s all I care about!!
Agreed. I think Clark has the size and production to make the team. I wonder, even if Dono makes it our of camp, is the writing on the wall for him with Juanyeh / Bell / Clark as younger, more athletic options?