Dallas Cowboys: How soon will Jabril Cox make an impact?

The Dallas Cowboys got one of the top steals on day three of the 2021 NFL Draft in LSU linebacker Jabril Cox. How soon will he make an impact?

Of all the areas you could poke some holes on the Dallas Cowboys roster, there’s no question that this team has assembled some really impressive depth at the linebacker position. Especially in terms of adding young, talented, and ultra-athletic players, Dallas has a crop of linebackers that could help breathe some life into one of the league’s worst defenses in 2020.

The Cowboys, of course, used their first-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft on Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons, a unique talent at the position who can play both off the ball as well as off the edge as a pass rusher.

Even with former first-round pick Leighton Vander Esch, former second-round pick Jaylon Smith, former first-round pick and free agent acquisition Keanu Neal, and now Parsons in line to play for the team in 2021, the Dallas Cowboys saw an opportunity they simply couldn’t pass up on day three of the 2021 Draft.

That opportunity was former LSU and North Dakota State linebacker Jabril Cox still sitting on the board in the fifth round.

Considering Cox had been projected to go anywhere from the 2nd-3rd round in most mock draft scenarios leading up to the 2021 NFL Draft, it was a little more than shocking for him to still be sitting there heading into day three, much less into round five.

Jabril Cox brings value to the Dallas Cowboys

Seeing as Cox wasn’t built from the ground up by the LSU program, he wasn’t exactly the “next in line” behind guys like Devin White and Patrick Queen, both recent first-round selections.

Cox transferred to LSU prior to the 2020 season from North Dakota State and more than held his own going from an FCS powerhouse to the reigning National Champions of the FBS.

https://twitter.com/PFF/status/1388318563300163584

Cox was a top-50 player on the Pro Football Focus draft board, and even as unconventional as their board can sometimes look by comparison to other consensus boards, it’s pretty amazing that Dallas was able to get one of the best coverage linebackers as late as they did.

Still, there is a clear logjam ahead of him at the position and the path to playing time is not exactly paved before him.

Cox will be opening up training camp no higher than the fifth linebacker on the pecking order, and even if Dallas uses two or three guys on the field at a time most of the time, Cox may be playing a backup/special teams role all year barring injury.

This move was potentially more about 2022 than anything else. Cox has a chance to emerge as a starter once Leighton Vander Esch and Keanu Neal — both slated for 2022 free agency — are gone.