Dallas thought Jay Toia was more than just a big body at the NFL draft
Matt Zemek
 | UCLA Wire
The Dallas Cowboys picked Jay Toia at the NFL draft because they know he’s a big, thick player who can stuff the run. However, another point of emphasis emerges in evaluations of Toia. This points to the larger reason Dallas pulled the former UCLA Bruin off the draft board with a late selection, as Cowboys Wire notes:
“Mazi Smith was a first-round draft pick just two years ago. Osa Odighizuwa signed a huge contract extension this offseason to remain in Dallas, and then the team signed veteran Solomon Thomas just a week later. But the Cowboys have decided they’re not quite set at defensive tackle. With the 217th pick in the 2025 NFL draft, the Cowboys selected Jay Toia from UCLA. This pick came to Dallas as part of the Joe Milton trade package.
“At 340-plus pounds, Toia is a massive human, roughly the same size as second-season man Justin Rogers, who was a seventh-round draft pick himself out of Auburn last year. But he’s said to be surprisingly nimble, perhaps a byproduct of a background as a rugby player. Put it all together, and with a little more coaching, he could be just what the Cowboys need as a run-stopping D-tackle.”
The words “surprisingly nimble” jump off the page. The Cowboys could see what everyone else did: the girth, the power, the size. Being light on his feet could give Toia the extra ingredients needed to stick with the Cowboys beyond summer camp and into the regular season.