The Dallas Cowboys made some moderate moves at edge rusher in the offseason, most notably bringing back Dante Fowler Jr. on a 1-year, $6 million contract after he led the Washington Commanders in sacks in 2024.
Whatever the Cowboys do at the position is just to distract from the real story — the saga around if and when superstar Micah Parsons will finally receive a contract extension to make him the highest paid defensive player in NFL history.
When Parsons does eventually get his money, it will be Fowler to start with opposite him and a group of high upside talent behind them.
The Athletic’s Jon Machota thinks that one of those players, fourth year edge rusher Sam Williams, could be the singular breakout player for the Cowboys in 2025.
Williams had 8.5 sacks through his first 2 seasons before he suffered a season-ending ACL tear and partial MCL tear in training camp and missed the entire 2024 season.
“Williams holds the top spot here because his size and athletic ability are ideal for being an elite edge rusher,” Machota wrote. “The 2022 second-round pick just hasn’t been able to put it all together. His breakout season was supposed to be last year, but a season-ending knee injury in training camp put everything on hold. He took part in some individual drills during minicamp. If he’s healthy, he could be Dallas’ second-most productive pass rusher behind Micah Parsons.”
Williams Set Ole Miss Sacks Record in 2021
Williams’ career almost went off the rails several different times before he was selected by the Cowboys in the second round (No. 56 overall) of the 2022 NFL draft.
In high school, he was expelled for having a knife on school grounds. After transferring from Northeast Mississippi Community College to Ole Miss, he was suspended in July 2020 after an arrest for felony sexual battery but reinstated after the charges were dropped.
Williams put together a season for the ages as a senior in 2021 with 57 tackles, 16 TFL, 4 forced fumbles and one fumble returned for a touchdown — he also set the school single season record with 12.5 sacks. He followed that with a stunning performance at the NFL scouting combine, where he checked in at 6-foot-4 and 261 pounds, ran the 40-yard dash in 4.46 seconds and registered a 36-inch vertical jump.
“As a rusher, he gets off the ball quickly and attacks the pocket with the bend and hand work to gain entry into the backfield from a variety of angles,” NFL draft analyst Lance Zierlein wrote in 2022. “He projects as a potentially dangerous sub-package rusher who will need to get stronger and more competitive against the run if he wants to be considered for early down snaps.”
Cowboys Could Face Lengthy Holdout From Parsons
The Cowboys are coming off a 7-10 season and need all hands on deck for 2025 if they want to remain competitive in a division that now features the 2 teams who squared off in last year’s NFC Championship Game with the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles and upstart Commanders.
If the Cowboys end up facing a lengthy holdout from Parsons, Williams and Fowler and Co. will be counted on to pick up the slack in his absence — which seems like an almost impossible task.
Prediction Sees Cowboys Edge Rusher Develop Into ‘Elite’ NFL Talent