National signing day came and went a bit ago with little of the fanfare the event used to have in the past, as many recruits have been committed for quite some time. In fact, only one of the top 300 prospects listed on 247Sports’ composite rankings remained uncommitted on signing day.
We are but a humble NFL team blog, and our concern is primarily about the Dallas Cowboys. So we didn’t look at the high school prospects and where they committed. What we will do instead however, is go through the Cowboys roster and check out where Cowboys players ranked when they left high school.
Going through the Rivals database, it looks like the Cowboys have just four 5-star recruits on their roster – OT Tyler Booker, DE Jadeveon Clowney, DE Dante Fowler, and WR George Pickens. Not every player has a ranking, but 57 of the 74 players currently on the roster do, as you can see from the table below.
Player
Pos
College
Star Ranking
Bryan Anger
P
California
3
Justin Barron
LB
Syracuse
3
Cooper Beebe
C
Kansas State
3
Markquese Bell
S
Florida A&M
—
DaRon Bland
CB
Fresno State
—
Jaydon Blue
RB
Texas
4
Tyler Booker
G
Alabama
5
Trikweze Bridges
CB
Florida
3
Caelen Carson
CB
Wake Forest
3
Alijah Clark
DB
Syracuse
4
Kenny Clark
DT
UCLA
4
Ajani Cornelius
OT
Oregon
—
Malik Davis
RB
Florida
4
Donovan Ezeiruaku
DE
Boston College
3
Jake Ferguson
TE
Wisconsin
4
Ryan Flournoy
WR
Southeast Missouri State
—
Tyler Guyton
T
Oklahoma
3
Malik Hooker
S
Ohio State
3
James Houston
DE
Jackson State University
4
Shemar James
LB
Florida
4
Trevor Keegan
G
Michigan
4
CeeDee Lamb
WR
Oklahoma
4
Marist Liufau
LB
Notre Dame
3
Hunter Luepke
RB
North Dakota State
—
Phil Mafah
RB
Clemson
4
Joe Milton III
QB
Tennessee
4
Jonathan Mingo
WR
Mississippi
4
Osa Odighizuwa
DT
UCLA
3
DeMarvion Overshown
LB
Texas
4
Dak Prescott
QB
Mississippi State
3
Shavon Revel Jr.
CB
East Carolina
3
Luke Schoonmaker
TE
Michigan
3
Trent Sieg
LS
Colorado State
—
Tyler Smith
OL
Tulsa
4
Brevyn Spann-Ford
TE
Minnesota
3
Terence Steele
T
Texas Tech
3
Nate Thomas
T
Louisiana-Lafayette
—
Solomon Thomas
DT
Stanford
4
Jay Toia
DT
UCLA
4
KaVontae Turpin
WR
TCU
3
Quinnen Williams
DT
Alabama
4
Logan Wilson
LB
Wyoming
—
Perrion Winfrey
DT
Oklahoma
4
Reserve/Future
Israel Abanikanda
RB
Pittsburgh
3
Parris Campbell
WR
Ohio State
4
Zion Childress
CB
Kentucky
3
Will Grier
QB
West Virginia
4
Traeshon Holden
WR
Oregon
4
Marcellus Johnson
T
Missouri
3
Isaiah Land
LB
Florida A&M
—
Nick Leverett
OL
Rice
—
Adedayo Odeleye
DL
Loughborough (UK)
—
Julius Wood
S
East Carolina
3
Exclusive Rights Free Agent
Josh Butler
CB
Michigan State
3
Reddy Steward
DB
Troy
3
Restricted Free Agent
Brandon Aubrey
K
Notre Dame
—
T.J. Bass
G
Oregon
3
Brock Hoffman
C
Virginia Tech
3
Juanyeh Thomas
S
Georgia Tech
3
Unrestricted Free Agent
Hakeem Adeniji
OT
Kansas
—
Corey Ballentine
CB
Washburn
—
Jadeveon Clowney
DE
South Carolina
5
Dante Fowler Jr.
DE
Florida
5
C.J. Goodwin
CB
California (PA)
—
Rob Jones
G
Middle Tennessee State
—
Kenneth Murray, Jr.
LB
Oklahoma
3
George Pickens
WR
Georgia
5
Jack Sanborn
MLB
Wisconsin
4
Miles Sanders
RB
Penn State
4
Jalen Tolbert
WR
South Alabama
—
Payton Turner
DE
Houston
3
Javonte Williams
RB
North Carolina
3
Sam Williams
DE
Mississippi
4
Donovan Wilson
S
Texas A&M
3
I’ll be the first to admit that the star rating out of high school has no bearing on the NFL performance of a player. As such, this is little more than a nice-to-know data point.
But I couldn’t help notice that three of the 5-star recruits are unrestricted free agents. And I wonder whether the three (plus Javonte Williams) should be the players the Cowboys re-sign.
Pickens franchise tag/future contract is all over the headlines, and the Cowboys have repeatedly said they want to keep him for the long term. Dallas has already re-signed Javonte Williams. And Stephen Jones said the team would also like Clowney back:
“With his willingness to want to be here and us wanting him to be here, hopefully we can figure something out.”
That leaves us with Dante Fowler. PFF.com estimates Clowney’s market value at $10 million for a one-year deal, Fowler comes in quite a bit lower at $6 million for a one-year deal.
Clowney led the team with 8.5 sacks, while Fowler only had 3.0, but some of the advanced stats we have available suggest their performance was more comparable than their divergent sack totals imply. Here’s how the Cowboys duo compares to the top 14 edge rushers available in free agency this year.
2026 Free Agent Pass Rushers (click blue column headers to sort)
Player
Team
Age
Sacks
PFF
Grade
Pass Rush
Win Rate)
Market Value
(AAV in $ million)
Trey Hendrickson
CIN
31.2
4.0
82.9
21.5%
21.0
Odafe Oweh
LAC
27.2
7.5
75.5
16.2%
19.3
Boye Mafe
SEA
27.2
2.0
70.3
11.3%
16.3
K’Lavon Chaisson
NE
26.5
7.5
59.0
11.5%
15.0
Khalil Mack
LAC
34.9
5.5
79.2
13.2%
14.0
Joey Bosa
BUF
30.6
5.0
74.6
15.0%
11.0
Arden Key
TEN
29.8
4.0
63.7
10.2%
10.8
Jadeveon Clowney
DAL
33.0
8.5
79.2
16.7%
10.0
Dre’Mont Jones
BAL
29.1
2.5
64.7
12.9%
10.0
Kwity Paye
IND
27.2
4.0
59.0
10.8%
10.0
Arnold Ebiketie
ATL
27.0
2.0
74.9
16.8%
8.0
Cameron Jordan
NO
36.7
10.0
59.5
9.9%
7.5
Dante Fowler
DAL
31.5
3.0
77.6
14.7%
6.0
Malcolm Koonce
LV
27.7
4.5
58.0
14.4%
6.0
Jaelan Phillips
PHI
26.7
5.0
76.2
18.4%
15.0
Bradley Chubb
MIA
29.6
8.5
54.5
11.1%
tbd
Unfortunately, as you’ll see if you sort by age, Clowney and Fowler are the third- and fourth-oldest players on this list. If you want to get younger, signing both is not going to help. But if you look at their PFF grade, you’ll see that Clowney is tied for second overall, and Fowler is just behind him at No. 4. Sorting by Pass Rush Win Rate shows Clowney at No. 4 and Fowler at No. 7.
If you take age, PFF Grade, and Pass Rush Win Rate into account, Jaelan Phillips, Odafe Oweh, and Arnold Ebiketie appear like the most appealing options, but Phillips and Oweh are each likely going to cost as much as Clowney and Fowler combined.
And since this is a post that started out as a 5-star recruit post and meandered into a free agency pass rush post, here’s the star ranking of the three players identified as potential Cowboys targets above:
Jaelan Phillips: 5 starsOdafe Oweh: 4 starsArnold Ebiketie: 3 stars
The situation today mirrors where the Cowboys were heading into the 2015 season. Edge rusher Jeremy Mincey would turn 32 that year, Anthony Spencer was 31 years old, and George Selvie would turn 28. Spencer and Selvie were free agents, and they were not re-signed for the 2025 season. DeMarcus Lawrence had been drafted the year before and was a youthful 22.
The Cowboys kept Mincey for one more year, and in an ill-advised move, went out and signed Greg Hardy to a contract worth up to $13.1 million. Adjusted for salary cap growth ($143 million in 2015 vs ~$305 million this year), that would be the equivalent of a $27.9 million contract this year. They also drafted Randy Gregory with their second pick that year, which also didn’t work out terribly well. But it wasn’t for lack of trying in both cases.
Can history repeat itself? Which two edge rushers would you sign to the 2026 Cowboys roster?