Life moves fast in the NFL. On Monday, the Dallas Cowboys had three players stop by for a visit: running back Ronald Jones, linebacker Travin Howard, and offensive lineman Chuma Edoga. Come Tuesday afternoon, one of them, Edoga, signed with the Silver and Blue on a one-year deal.
The Cowboys will be Edoga’s third team after beginning with the New York Jets (2019-2021) and spending last season with the Atlanta Falcons. The soon-to-be 26-year-old was the Jets’ third round pick (92nd overall) in the 2019 NFL Draft. Edoga has totaled 13 starts in 26 career games played, including starting half of his games with the Jets (12 of 24). A knee injury limited him to two games played with the Falcons in 2022. Given Tyron Smith’s (32 years old) advancing age, Edoga could be a decent backup in case of injury to him or any of the others Cowboys’ offensive line starters.
According to DallasCowboys.com, more of Monday’s visitors could also join Edoga as a new Cowboys signee. Just five days after releasing the franchise’s No. 3 leading rusher in Ezekiel Elliott, the Dallas Cowboys brought in a younger running back with less tread on his tires in 25-year-old Ronald Jones, per the league’s transaction wire (via NFL Media). Jones has been a part of two of the past three Super Bowl champions, suiting up for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 2020 season and the reigning champions, the Kansas City Chiefs, in 2022.
The 38th overall pick (second round) in the 2018 NFL Draft out of USC, Jones has amassed 2,244 career rushing yards and 19 rushing touchdowns on 505 career carries. His best season was at age 23, season three, with the Buccaneers en route to their Super Bowl LV title when he totaled 978 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns on 192 carries. In 2021, Jones was beaten out by Leonard Fournette as the Buccaneers’ lead back, so his productivity declined. He had 427 rushing yards and four rushing scores on just more than 100 carries. He joined the Chiefs in 2022, but an ankle injury limited him to six games.
Another Super Bowl champion also had a visit with the Cowboys on Monday, per the transaction wire: linebacker Travin Howard. The Dallas-Fort Worth product out of TCU, who turns 27 in May, made one of the bigger plays in the Los Angeles Rams‘ Super Bowl LVI run during the 2021 season with a game-sealing interception of then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo with 1:09 remaining in the NFC Championship Game. A knee injury derailed Howard’s 2020 season in Los Angeles, as he suffered a preseason torn meniscus. A groin injury caused him to miss all but one game of the 2022 season. The former seventh-round pick could be a decent depth add on a one-year, prove-it deal behind Micah Parsons and Leighton Vander Esch.
