Tag: Noah Dawkins

Cowboys work out 4 UFL defenders, including 2 former 1st-round draft picks

From @ToddBrock24f7: CBs Deandre Baker and Gareon Conley were 1st-round picks in the NFL. Their workouts Tuesday could be the first step toward a comeback bid.

Cowboys management loves to say that player evaluation happens 365 days a year. What they never mention is that some of those days are slightly busier than others.

Tuesday was one of those days. The team hosted four defensive players from the UFL- DC Defenders cornerback Deandre Baker, DC Defenders cornerback Gareon Conley, Michigan Panthers linebacker Noah Dawkins, and St. Louis Battlehawks linebacker Willie Harvey Jr.- for workouts at The Star in Frisco as the team prepares for training camp in late July.

All have at least some level of experience with NFL clubs; two of them were first-round draft picks at one point before their careers took a detour.

Baker was taken in the first round of the 2019 draft by the Giants. A Jim Thorpe Award winner and consensus All-American at Georgia, New York actually traded up to get him. But an arrest before his second season landed him on the commissioner’s exempt list, and the Giants waived him shortly thereafter. He made the Chiefs practice squad toward the end of the 2020 season and got back onto the field in late 2021, but a broken femur cut his comeback bid short. 2024 was his first year back in football; he was named to the inaugural All-UFL Team.

Conley was a first-round draft pick of the Raiders in 2017. The former Ohio State Buckeye played 23 games for the silver and black, making 20 starts and logging four interceptions over three seasons. The Houston Texans traded for him midway through the 2019 season, but he played just eight games with the club and spent most of 2020 on injured reserve. He logged two interceptions for the 4-6 Defenders this spring.

Dawkins was impressive enough coming out of The Citadel to be ranked in Mel Kiper Jr.’s Top 300 in 2019, but he went undrafted. He spent that summer in camp with the Bengals, then signed with Tampa Bay. After one season, he joined the Jets, where he stayed through the 2021 season. After a camp stint with Chicago in 2022, he moved to the USFL’s Panthers. This spring, he recorded 38 tackles for 7-3 Michigan under former Cowboys defensive coordinator Mike Nolan.

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Harvey was an undrafted free agent out of Iowa State in 2019 and spent three seasons in the Browns organization. This spring was his second season with the Battlehawks and his league-leading 76 tackles earned him an All-UFL nod.

Per the team website, the Cowboys currently have just two open roster spots with about six weeks to go before training camp opens in Oxnard, Calif.

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Browns worked out 11 players as they search for 90th man

The Browns tried out 11 players as they look to fill out Perrion Winfrey’s roster spot

The Cleveland Browns were finally forced to release defensive tackle Perrion Winfrey after he was in the news yet again. This, however, has left them with an open roster spot as they report for training camp today.

They went out of their way to try out 11 different players yesterday as they look to fill the roster spot left by Winfrey. It started with two linebackers, but the list turned out to be much deeper.

Here are the 11 players who auditioned for Cleveland’s 90th roster spot.

Browns tryout two linebackers as they look to fill empty roster spot

The Browns currently sit with 89 players on their roster. They are trying out some linebackers as a result.

The Cleveland Browns have an open roster spot, sitting at 89 players as training camp has arrived, after releasing defensive tackle Perrion Winfrey a day ago. As a result, they are looking to have a full lineup to work with, working out two linebackers (according to Aaron Wilson) today.

Here are the two linebackers the Browns are working out as well as a little background information on them.

7 Jets in need of a big game against the Eagles

Position battles will rage on in the Jets’ preseason finale against the Eagles.

Preseason play is deemed mostly insignificant for players locked into roster spots. Other than taking some repetitions against competition as a tune-up, preseason games are no more than a formality before the beginning of the regular season for starters and key reserves.

The same cannot be said for players squarely on the roster bubble. In fact, the preseason is the most important time of the year for any player fighting to make a team. The Jets’ starters will play a half at the most and go through the motions in their preseason finale against the Eagles, but it becomes survival of the fittest once the reserves enter.

Here are seven Jets who are looking to make the most of their playing time against the Eagles to either get back to top form, help their standing on the depth chart, or do enough to improve their chances of avoiding the ax before cutdown day, which is just around the corner.

Noah Dawkins’ chances of making Jets’ roster skyrocket after Jarrad Davis injury

Noah Dawkins has put himself in a position to break camp with the Jets following Jarrad Davis’ ankle injury.

Noah Dawkins arrived at One Jets Drive in late July as a holdover from the Adam Gase era.

The linebacker played in just five games with New York last season and made little impact. With a new defensive regime in place, Dawkins’ chances of staying with the Jets seemed non-existent.

But Dawkins has impressed his new coaches this summer, and the ankle injury suffered by Jarrad Davis in Saturday’s preseason win over the Packers has created an opportunity.

After working with the backups in New York’s preseason opener, Dawkins saw an extended run with Jeff Ulbrich’s first-team defense against the Packers. That was before Davis went down; the Jets likely wanted a more thorough evaluation of the 24-year-old Dawkins. The Jets are now suddenly in need of linebacker depth and Dawkins profiles as a natural fit to fill the void.

“I think Dawk’s done a really nice job,” Robert Saleh said after New York’s win over the Packers. “He’s had a 180 since OTAs. He’s been extremely detailed. He’s been getting extra meeting time. He’s been more consistent with his responsibility and when he’s on it and his eyes are right and his feet are in the ground, the kid can flat out fly — especially with our defense where we’re asking guys to shrink the field and suffocate an offense.”

Dawkins has just one tackle in 15 career NFL games, but as Saleh said, his skill set is an obvious fit in New York’s new defensive scheme. Dawkins ran an official 4.41 40-yard dash with a tweaked hamstring before the 2019 NFL draft. He has showcased his ability to make plays from sideline to sideline this summer.

The Jets aren’t asking Dawkins to step into Davis’ starting spot. That responsibility will likely fall on the shoulders of rookie Jamien Sherwood. All New York needs is for Dawkins to be a reliable rotation piece, which is a role he has already proven he can play.

“Sherwood’s been doing a really nice job, so we’re expecting him to slide in and pick up where Jarrad left off,” Saleh said Monday. “He’s been having a really nice camp and it’s an opportunity for him to step up and take on a bigger role. With regard to that linebacker group, we’re really excited about that unit.”

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The 6 hardest cuts from Jets Wire’s preseason Week 2 roster prediction

After releasing a 53-man roster prediction following Week 2 of the preseason, we at Jets Wire explained our toughest cuts.

Training camp and the preseason is the time for players to establish themselves as contributors and lock down roster spots.

It is also the place where NFL dreams sometimes go to die.

The Jets can only carry 53 players once the beginning of the regular season arrives — a far cry from the number they currently have in the building with training camp nearing its end. New York would likely prefer to keep more than 53 players around considering the talent it has at One Jets Drive, but that is not how things work in professional football.

Joe Douglas and Robert Saleh are going to have some excruciating decisions to make at the end of August. Which players did just enough to make the 53-man squad? Which players fell just short and will now have to seek a new opportunity elsewhere? Those questions will be answered after countless hours of watching film and deliberating.

We at Jets Wire took a crack at projecting the 53-man roster after Saturday’s preseason Week 2 action against the Packers. All of the cuts predicted in that piece can be seen directly below, followed by explanations for the toughest severances.

  • QB: Josh Johnson, James Morgan
  • RB: Josh Adams, Austin Walter
  • WR: Manasseh Bailey, Lawrence Cager, Josh Malone, D.J. Montgomery, Jeff Smith, Vyncint Smith
  • TE: Daniel Brown, Kenny Yeboah
  • OL: Grant Hermanns, Tristen Hoge, Corey Levin, David Moore, Jimmy Murray
  • DL: Ronald Blair, Michael Dwumfour, Kyle Phillips, Tanzel Smart
  • LB: Noah Dawkins, Camilo Eifler, Del’Shawn Phillips, Edmond Robinson, Brendon White
  • CB: Corey Ballentine, Elijah Campbell, Lamar Jackson
  • S: Bennett Jackson, J.T. Hassell
  • Specialists: None