FRISCO, Texas 鈥� Let's go, finally, less than a week until the NFL Draft commences next Thursday, April 23, and thank goodness. Seems we've been talking about this draft ever since the Cowboys realistically were eliminated from the 2025 NFL playoffs during that three-game losing streak following the Thanksgiving Day win over Kansas City, falling to 6-8-1 on their way to finishing 7-9-1 and missing the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2019-20.
And don't mind outing myself. Never been one of these so-called draftniks, someone spewing out 10 mock drafts or claiming to have been watching player tape since the start of January. Though must admit like two weeks ago did acquiesce and do a 12-pick first-round mock for a TV show we were recording. Ha, they manipulated those first 11 picks so the Cowboys could draft Miami defensive end Rueben Bain Jr. at 12, then threw in Texas linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. at 20.
Fit the Cowboys needs, accuracy notwithstanding.
Since intimately covering NFL Drafts since 1985, back when it was actually 12 rounds, have brilliantly figured out a few things along the way. That the Cowboys would draft Troy Aikman No. 1 in 1989. That the Cowboys would take a running back in 1990 that turned out to be Emmitt Smith.
That in 2005 the Cowboys should take DeMarcus Ware at 11 and Marcus Spears at 20. That, oops, the Cowboys should be hesitant to roll the dice on Dez Bryant in 2010. That after watching some guy named Ezekiel Elliott run for four touchdowns and 246 yards in Ohio State's 42-20 national championship crushing of Oregon at AT&T Stadium, though knowing he would not be draft eligible until after the 2015 college season, said to whoever was in earshot the Cowboys should lock the stadium doors to prevent "this guy" from leaving.
Not only those but liked the idea, after watching a workout and listening to an interview outside of AT&T playing host to the 2018 draft, of the Cowboys' drafting this linebacker Leighton Vander Esch out of Boise State. And that in 2021, they needed to draft this Penn State football player named Micah Parsons at 12, and when asked where he would play on the defense, my answer was, "on the field."
So here we are, the night after the Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year Award ceremony Thursday at Ford Center, where three high-character guys advanced to the finals of some 91 candidates: linebacker Aiden Fisher of undefeated national champion Indiana, linebacker Jacob Rodriguez of Big 12 champion Texas Tech, winners of a first-round playoff bye, and offensive lineman Aamil Wagner of 10th ranked Notre Dame, which narrowly missed the playoffs. Quality guys every one of them, Witten saying the voting coming down to a two-man tie until the final vote came in.
Winner: Jacob Rodriguez, first-team All-American, first-team All-Big 12, winner of the Nagurski, Lombardi and Butkus Awards, fifth in the Heisman voting and a two-time Red Raiders team captain. That I knew. Also briefly knew his story, that of wife Emma, the West Point grad and currently a Black Hawk helicopter pilot in the Army.
After last night, now know him and the rest of his inspiring story.
High school quarterback in Wichita Falls. Recruited to Virginia as a quarterback, where he somewhat discovered at 6-1 he wasn't going to cut it with the Cavaliers. Having played his high school ball in Texas, Rodriguez knew all about Tech's new head coach, Joey McGuire, the highly successful high school football coach who was a four-time state champ at Crowley High School. Received the final walk-on spot available the Red Raiders had but was told he would have to earn a scholarship as a linebacker. No more quarterbacking.
Made that move in 2022. Was lucky to have a brother attending Tech. Slept on the floor of his brother's apartment that first year. Earned the scholarship and became a two-time captain at Tech in 2024 and 2025. Quite a rise for a wannabe quarterback from Wichita Falls. Great story.
Then listened to him during a brief six-minute interview before the winner of the award was ever announced:
"This means everything. This is kind of the product of how I was raised. My parents did such an amazing job with me being the youngest and learning from my older siblings, and every coach and every person who's had a hand in shaping me into what I am today. Kind of who you need to be as a person, be a leader, be a great teammate and a great person off the field, I think means everything. 鈥� Being nominated for this is unbelievable."
Jacob had me at "unbelievable."
But don't take my word for it. Listen to Witten, head of this search for the collegiate equivalent of the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award that Witten himself won (2012) during his 16-year career with the Cowboys. He then moved on to head coach at Liberty Christian High School in nearby Argyle, Texas, where he won consecutive TAPPS state championships, and he's now a first-year assistant at the University of Oklahoma.
"In awe of his maturity," Witten began. "I think the best players and the best leaders that I've been around, the stage was never too big for them, and I think if you spend a few minutes with (Jacob) you see that pretty quickly. Any success he's had, and he's had his fair share of adversity and challenges he's had to go through, but I think there is a great sense of gratitude that he displays and communicates on receiving this award.
"And the questions that he asks say a lot about who he is and is the reason why he's so successful."
Now look, sometimes during this draft stuff we know the analytical numbers. Age: 23. Height: 6-1. 40 speed: 4.57. Led the nation with seven forced fumbles last season with 13 in his linebacker career. Tackles: 127 and then 128 the last two years.
One draft projection: "Long-term starting inside linebacker." But then not in the same sentences with Ohio State's Arvell Reese or Sonny Styles.
Of course, we darn well know the Cowboys still need to come up with a starting inside linebacker for this 2026 season, either in this draft, free agency or by trade. Rodriguez probably doesn't project as a top-12 pick, but at 20 or potentially from a Cowboys trade down, who knows. A second rounder? Maybe, but the Cowboys don't have a second-round pick 鈥� uh, today.
Here's the deal, though. For years around here, and probably started with Jason Garrett as head coach, he would always say you want "the right kind of guy." Not sure what that designation does to your draft status, but sure doesn't hurt. And we certainly are talking the right kind of guy here.
And as if right on cue, just the other day Cowboys COO and co-owner Stephen Jones had this to say when asked if the franchise is still "trying to create an identity and culture on this team."
"Certainly, on defense we felt like we lacked that last year," Jones said. "We didn't have the identity, the culture, you know, that we needed. That the players were buying into and playing with an edge, and certainly that's the goal. And then, ultimately, the goal is to have a culture and an identity for our entire football team that is trying to develop in terms of, you know, the type of men that we bring in here to compete day in and day out."
The more you're around Jacob Rodriguez, the more you appreciate not only what he has accomplished for a man so young, meaning so young he hadn't even been born yet when the Cowboys last held training camp in Wichita Falls (2001). Now, is he a Dat Nguyen starter kit at linebacker, Dat having carved out a seven-year career playing as an undersized inside linebacker with the Cowboys at just 5-11, probably compensating for the lack of three or so inches in size with his smarts, instincts and being, as Bill Parcells once labeled him, "a football playing dude."
That's this Rodriguez dude, Bill. You'd love him.
And as was leaving Ford Center after the award ceremony, walked past Witten having a conversation with Rodriguez backstage, just the two of them. And you know what, that thought of 12 years ago occurred to me again when walking through the dividing curtains and continuing past the security guard desk:
Hey, lock the doors. Don't let this Rodriguez guy leave the building.
