Israel Mukuamu had a bold proclamation for his new boss in their very first conversation. He wasn’t the South Carolina defensive back that the Cowboys were seemingly lined up to take in Thursday night’s first round, but Mukuamu was quick to toot his own horn after becoming the 227th overall selection.
“Just know you got the best corner coming in,” the 21-year-old bragged to owner Jerry Jones upon getting the call on Saturday afternoon.
Strong words, considering that 33 corners were taken ahead of him. He wasn’t even the first cornerback that Dallas drafted; the Cowboys picked both Kelvin Joseph and Nahshon Wright an entire day before ringing Mukuamu.
But the team likely has something else in mind for the youngster anyway.
“I think we’ve got some safety aspirations for him,” chief operating officer Stephen Jones said in the team’s third post-draft press conference. “Give our scouts credit; they had a vision. This guy’s long, he’s got great ball skills, and he’s a little heavier, of course, than Nahshon [Wright]. I think we’ve got a vision; that’s probably where we’ll start him- over at the safety position and see what he can do. He obviously has a lot of confidence as a corner, if you ask him. But at the same time, I think he’s got the ball skills to play in the post, to cover tight ends, to do the things we need him to do and be physical enough to be a safety.”
Mukuamu certainly fits the prototype of a Dan Quinn DB; he and third-round pick Wright were the tallest corners taken in this year’s draft. He has current Cowboys safety Darian Thompson beat by two inches, and stands a full four inches taller than Donovan Wilson.
The path to a corner job in Dallas may be harder to come by. Trevon Diggs has one spot locked up; there are nine others currently listed as cornerbacks on the official team roster, including Anthony Brown, Jourdan Lewis, the aforementioned Joseph and Wright, and others.
Mukuamu impressed as a freshman in 2018 and earned second-team All-SEC honors in 2019. His 2020 campaign was cut short by a groin injury, and when South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp was fired midseason, Mukuamu opted out of the rest of the slate.
Now that’s making the leap to the pros, he says he’s ready to do whatever the team asks of him. At whatever position.
“I feel more comfortable at corner,” Mukuamu told the Dallas media in his introductory conference call, “but the plan is to get on the field as quick as I can. So if that means playing corner or safety, it really doesn’t matter to me. I am just trying to help the Cowboys win.”
The sixth-rounder’s boast about being the best corner in the class may have been a good-natured dig at his college bookend Jaycee Horn. Horn was widely rumored to be one of the Cowboys’ primary targets in the first round of the draft, but the Panthers took him eighth overall to make him the first cornerback taken.
According to Mukuamu, though, Horn spent a portion of his own celebratory weekend in support of his teammate.
“Yeah, Jaycee was just at my draft party. He is excited for me, and he is ready to get to work.”
While Horn sees cornerback duties in Carolina, Mukuamu may soon be adapting to life as a safety if the Cowboys coaches get their way.
But Jerry Jones, as always, allowed some wiggle room, hedging his bets when it comes to the DB’s big boast.
“We can probably figure out something at safety if he is the best corner we’ve got,” Jones said with a laugh.
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