FRISCO, Texas 鈥 Brian Schottenheimer and offensive coordinator Klayton Adams got their wish with the first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, 12th-overall, when the 抖阴视频 selected former Alabama guard Tyler Booker, and the second-round saw defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus rewarded with Donovan Ezeiruaku 鈥 a superstar defensive end from Boston College with the 44th-overall selection.
Ezeiruaku's reaction to the call was wholly authentic when considering he didn't have a single formal meeting with the Cowboys in the predraft process, only an informal meeting at the NFL Combine, leading him to believe they weren't a likely landing spot in April.
Spoiler alert: he was wrong, and he's perfectly fine with that, to say the least.
"Yeah, so honestly, emotions were 鈥 just chilling here with my family and wasn't really expecting anything, and then my phone vibrates. I saw the caller ID and it said 'Blue Star'," said the Ted Hendricks Award winner and ACC Defensive Player of the Year (2024). " I answered it, not knowing who was calling me, and it was surreal, for sure." .
His journey to Dallas is made that much more interesting by the fact he's not only a native of Philadelphia, but also raised as an Eagles fan, despite growing up in New Jersey. By the sound of it, Ezeiruaku was a diehard of the Kelly Green and spent the entirety of his 21 years alive rooting against the Cowboys.
That all came to a screeching halt on Friday, April 25 鈥 to the point where he began making demands of the Eagles fans standing near him at his draft party.
"I'm here right now [in Jersey] celebrating at a country club," he said without so much as cracking a smile. "And it's some people here with Eagles gear on. I said, 'Go ahead and take that off right now.'"
And while he enjoyed Philly winning the Super Bowl in 2024, Ezeiruaku put the kibosh on his fandom once he heard owner and general manager Jerry Jones on the other end of his phone.
"[The Eagles winning it all] was cool, in my last year as an Eagles fan," he said, firmly.
He joins a defensive line that lost DeMarcus Lawrence to free agency, a longtime elite run defender at the edge, and that, overall, desperately needs assistance to go along with all-world pass rusher Micah Parsons as former second-round picks Sam Williams and Marshawn Kneeland return from a torn ACL and look to improve in Year 2, respectively.
"It'll be great to learn from somebody like [Parsons]," said Ezeiruaku. "He's from [Pennsylvania], so it'll be really cool to learn from a guy like that."
There are other attributes Ezeiruaku brings to the table other than the 16.5 sacks in 2024 for Boston College, but also the fact he forced eight fumbles; and that's something Eberflus has to grin ear-to-ear about when knowing just how critical taking the ball away has become for the Cowboys in recent seasons.
It truly is the crux of Dallas' success on defense.
"I think that you know nothing more important on the football field than the football," said Ezeiruaku of his ability to hawk the ball. "Just being able to not just get a sack or a tackle, but going for the football is always the emphasis from the coaches that coached me in college. I'll definitely be able to contribute in that area."
The final tenet of his game, not to be ignored, is yet another item the Cowboys hunger for, and that's his ability to defend the run 鈥 Ezeiruaku being one of the better run defenders in this year's draft class.
He's not afraid to get his hands dirty and, actually, enjoys doing it.
"I take a whole lot of pride in it," said the First-team All-ACC edge rusher. "That's something that I understand that you cannot get the pass rush going until you stop to run on first or second down. I played for a tough D-line coach at B.C., who also took a lot of great care of that run [defense] because he was also our run defense coordinator.
"We need to stop the run. We've gotta put our nose in there and take on blocks and strike blockers, just to get to that ball on first and second down."
That is exactly what Eberflus and the Cowboys love to hear.
