Cowboys Thinking About Taking Oklahoma Star With 19th Pick
The Dallas Cowboys need some pass rushing help and the team has their eyes set on defenders with their first round pick.
The Cowboys recently met with University of Oklahoma DE Ogbonnia Okoronkwo to get a close look at the second ranked defensive end in the draft.
Okoronkwo, who met with Cowboys’ scout Sam Garza before the Senior Bowl, said he showed Garza what he asked for and thought the meeting went well.
“He told me everything he wanted to see this week in practice,” Okoronkwo said. “He wanted to see power moves & continue to see speed around the edge & he just wanted to see me in the run game show up a little bit more & I feel like I did all of that.”
Even though he is the second ranked pass rusher in the draft, a lot of teams will overlook Okoronkwo because of his size.
He is listed as 6-foot-1, 243 pounds, but his size didn’t stop him from dominating in college.
According to Pro Football Focus, Okoronkwo generated 46 pressures on the quarterback including 31 hurries, eight sacks and five hits. This was achieved in 373 pass-rush reps, which equates mathematically to harassment of the opposing QB 12.3% of the time.
North Carolina State’s Bradley Chubb, who is the top rated pass rusher in the draft, was able to generate pressure at a higher rate, but not by much, harassing QB’s 13.7% of his own pass-rush snap count.
Due to reservations about his size, Okoronkwo might slide to the second day of the draft, but Cowboys VP Stephen Jones already said towards the end of the season that the Cowboys were leaning towards taking a defensive lineman with the 19th pick.
Since the Cowboys might lose David Irving in free agency, getting a pass rusher makes a lot of sense.
