{"id":6621,"date":"2025-04-28T09:36:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T09:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/6621\/"},"modified":"2025-04-28T09:36:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T09:36:10","slug":"who-is-phil-mafah-5-things-to-know-about-cowboys-new-bruising-running-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/6621\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is Phil Mafah? 5 things to know about Cowboys\u2019 new bruising running back"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the Cowboys<\/a>\u2019 biggest needs going into the NFL draft was at running back.<\/p>\n

They first addressed it in the fifth round by selecting Texas RB Jaydon Blue<\/a>. But the Cowboys weren\u2019t done adding to the RB room, as they selected Clemson\u2019s Phil Mafah in the seventh round with the 239th pick in the draft<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mafah is a big, physical back who could be a nice complement to Blue.<\/p>\n

Here are five things to know about the Cowboys\u2019 rookie RB.<\/p>\n

Cowboys<\/p>\n

Be the smartest Cowboys fan. Get the latest news.<\/p>\n

1. The basics<\/p>\n

Name: Phil-Ceasar Mafah<\/p>\n

Position: Running back<\/p>\n

Height: 6-0 Weight: 234<\/p>\n

College: Clemson<\/p>\n

Hometown: Loganville, Ga.<\/p>\n

High school: Grayson High School<\/p>\n

2. An all-time Clemson Tiger<\/p>\n

Mafah is one of the best running backs to ever play for Clemson. In his four years, he racked up 2,887 yards on 561 carries with 28 touchdowns. <\/p>\n

He capped his four-year career with his best campaign yet, tallying 1,115 rushing yards and eight touchdowns on 216 carries. Mafah ranks ninth in Clemson history in career rushing yards and 10th in career rushing touchdowns.<\/p>\n

Mafah was also very respected by his teammates, who voted him as a permanent captain in 2024. He\u2019ll now look to bring his physical running style to the NFL.<\/p>\n

3. \u201cMo Mafah, Mo Better\u201d<\/p>\n

During the 2024 season, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney coined a phrase to describe his running back that Cowboys fans may be saying in the future.<\/p>\n

Mafah was a workhorse for Clemson and had just tallied 176 snaps in the Tigers\u2019 previous two games. When asked about the snap count, Swinney didn\u2019t seem concerned.<\/p>\n

\u201cMo Mafah, mo better. That\u2019s what I like. I ain\u2019t worried about anything else,\u201d Swinney said during his weekly news conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cA little Mafah\u2019s good, mo is better. This is the championship phase, man. We have all the confidence in the world in our other guys. But why would you not want to give the ball to Mafah more? We only got him for a few more weeks. He\u2019s going to be gone, and he\u2019s a horse, man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ClemsonClemson running back Phil Mafah (7) runs against Wake Forest during the first half of an NCAA football game in Greensboro, N.C., Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024.(Chuck Burton \/ AP)4. Former lineman<\/p>\n

Clemson assistant coach Mickey Conn knew Mafah from a young age, having coached his little league football team. Conn is also a former head coach at Grayson High School, where Mafah played his high school football.<\/p>\n

By the time Mafah got to Grayson, Conn had become a coach at Clemson, but still kept an eye on Mafah. <\/p>\n

According to a story from The Post and Courier<\/a>, Conn intervened when he got word that Mafah\u2019s ninth-grade coaches were putting him at defensive end.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey, y\u2019all got a running back over there that might be one of the best ones in the whole county,\u201d he told the coaches at Grayson.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce they figured it out, that was the end of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

After that was sorted, Mafah turned into a four-star recruit<\/a> and one of the best RBs in the country.<\/p>\n

Related:After NFL draft, it appears Dallas Cowboys have an RB committee with no chairman<\/a>5. Honoring his late mother<\/p>\n

Mafah, a son of immigrants from the Ivory Coast, spent his senior season with a burden.<\/p>\n

Suzanne Mafah, Phil\u2019s mother, endured a battle with cancer throughout Phil\u2019s senior season and passed away on January 18, 2025.<\/p>\n

She attended all of Phil\u2019s games at Clemson until the 2024 season due to her diagnosis, but didn\u2019t want anyone to worry about her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just knew she\u2019d want me to be playing football, wanting me to go hard for my teammates in my last year, finish well,\u201d Mafah said in a story on The Post and Courier<\/a>. \u201cSo that\u2019s what I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahead of the NFL draft, Mafah\u2019s family was thinking about how she was supposed to be there to see him reach his dream. But Phil was thinking about how she wouldn\u2019t have wanted him to dwell on the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s always prayed for me and imagined me and pictured me making it to the NFL,\u201d Mafah said<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s just awesome to finally be at that doorstep.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more about how Mafah pushed through both loss and injury during his senior season here.<\/a><\/p>\n

NFC East draft roundup: How the Giants are rebuilding, Eagles\u2019 defensive approach<\/a>Shell-shocked: Newest Cowboy Tyler Booker\u2019s turtle making cross-country journey to Dallas<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more Cowboys coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the Cowboys\u2019 biggest needs going into the NFL draft was at running back. They first addressed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2066],"tags":[230,229,257,2461,7,6,15,9,4662],"class_list":{"0":"post-6621","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-cowboys","8":"tag-cowboys","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-cowboys","11":"tag-dallascowboys","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-nfl-draft","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-things-to-know"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114414917488888055","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}