After re-establishing himself in the NFL in 2024, defensive tackle Byron Cowart has signed with the New York Jets, the NFL team announced.
Cowart played in the NFL’s regular season for the first time since 2022 and started games for the first time since 2020 during the 2024 campaign with the Chicago Bears.
The former Auburn defensive lineman followed Eric Washington to New York. Washington served as the Bears’ defensive coordinator in 2024. For 2025, he’s joined the staff of new New York coach Aaron Glenn as the defensive-line coach.
With Chicago, Cowart played in 15 games and started seven. He recorded 26 tackles and reached career highs with 2.5 sacks and five tackles for loss.
Cowart became an unrestricted free agent on Wednesday. Terms of his contract with the Jets were not disclosed.
With New York, Cowart joins a position group that includes two former Alabama players – Phidarian Mathis and Quinnen Williams.
Once ranked as the No. 1 recruit in the 2015 signing class, Cowart played at Auburn in 2015 and 2016 before being granted his release early in the 2017 season. Cowart cited his lack of playing time and the health of his mother as the reasons he sought to leave the Tigers. Cowart played at Maryland in the 2018 season.
Cowart joined the New England Patriots in the fifth round of the 2019 NFL Draft. He played in five games as a rookie, then made 14 starts in his second season, when he totaled 29 tackles and recorded one sack while playing 419 defensive snaps.
Cowart did not play during the 2021 season. He opened training camp on the physically-unable-to-perform list with an undisclosed injury and never came off it.
The Patriots waived Cowart on July 22, 2022, and he joined the Indianapolis Colts the next day as a waiver claim.
Cowart played in a reserve role in every game for the Colts in 2022.
For 2023, Cowart signed with the Kansas City Chiefs, but he was with the team less than two months before being released. Houston signed him on May 18, 2023, but the Texans cut Cowart when they reduced their preseason roster to the regular-season limit.
When the Miami Dolphins moved former Alabama standout Da’Shawn Hand from their practice squad to their active roster on Sept. 19, 2023, they signed Cowart for the practice squad, and he spent the rest of the season there without appearing in a game.
Cowart joined the Bears as a free agent one year ago.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at@AMarkG1.