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|PFFGrade|Pass RushWin 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 stars
Odafe Oweh: 4 stars
Arnold 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?