Cowboys Draft Pick Reveals Surprising Promise

We often hear the phrase "earn the right to rush the passer" and for new Dallas Cowboys edge rusher Donovan Ezeiruaku, that is exactly what he plans on doing.

Yes, his 16.5 sacks and 21 tackles for loss for Boston College last season paint the picture of a defender who takes quarterbacks' souls for fun, but in order to do that in the NFL, offenses have to be one-dimensional.

We saw last season when Dallas couldn't stop the run, the likes of Micah Parsons and others couldn't get after the quarterback. But stop the run and the flood gates could open.

And for Ezeiruaku, while his pass rushing talents are well-known, he knows everything starts and stops with what has been Dallas' biggest Achilles heel for years.

"I take a whole lot of pride in it," Ezeiruaku said via dallascowboys.com. "That's something that I understand that you cannot get the pass rush going until you stop to run on first or second down. I played for a tough D-line coach at B.C., who also took a lot of great care of that run [defense] because he was also our run defense coordinator.

"We need to stop the run. We've gotta put our nose in there and take on blocks and strike blockers, just to get to that ball on first and second down."