Cowboys’ Defensive Front Still Standing Out, Could Make for a Heavy Rotation This Fall

STILLWATER — The surprise of spring has apparently turned into the position group of fall.

Back in April, new Oklahoma State coach Eric Morris shouted out his defensive line, particularly his edge rushers, as a group that was a pleasant surprise toward the end of spring ball. And now a few weeks into fall camp, the Cowboys’ new defensive coordinator gave an unprompted shoutout to his front line.

“The group of the camp that’s done really, really well is our defensive front,” Skyler Cassity said. “I think those guys did a really, really good job early on. They’ve been physical at the point of attack. We’ve got obviously a heavy rotation of guys, which is a good problem to have.”

The group is deep, though, perhaps mostly unproven at the Power Conference level.

Jaleel Johnson earned a shoutout from Morris as the Cowboys’ most disruptive defender of spring at Big 12 Media Days. Listed at 6-foot-4, 270 pounds, Johnson has played in 26 games for the Cowboys the past three seasons. He drew his first three starts last season, but an injury four games into the year ended his campaign.

Another returner, Malik Charles drew some admiration from Morris because of his versatility as a 6-3, 284-pound defensive end who could also play inside. Last season was Charles’ first at the FBS level after previously playing at West Georgia, Northern Arizona and Western New Mexico.

Keviyan Huddleston was North Texas’ sack leader last season, finishing a 14-game season with give sacks, 9.5 tackles for loss and 31 total tackles. He spent the prior two seasons at TCU, playing in one game.

A Troy transfer, DJ Jackson Jr. has garnered shoutouts from teammates as a guy to look out for this season. Listed at 6-4, 243 pounds, Jackson had 22 tackles, five tackles for loss and two sacks last season at Troy, his first year at the Division-I level after spending a year playing D-II ball and another season at the junior college level.

Billy Walton III was a highly touted prospect coming out of Dallas who started his career at Texas before spending the past two seasons at SMU.

Morris and Co. moved Carl’veon Young from linebacker to defensive end after the spring to allow the former four-star prospect from Carl Albert to “read and react and play fast.”

James Williams is probably the most proven edge rusher the Cowboys have in terms of the Power Conference level. Across three seasons (two at Nebraska and one at Florida State), Williams has made 8.5 sacks and 10.5 tackles for loss.

All of that is to say, the Cowboys aren’t short on edge rushing potential (which doesn’t even mention the guys the Cowboys have inside), but there isn’t that high-end guarantee of success someone like a Collin Oliver or Emmanuel Ogbah might’ve provided the Cowboys in the past. But if it comes together, you could see the upside.

That depth is important, too, because unlike their offensive counterparts, defensive linemen are often coming in and out of a game to stay fresh.

“We’ll always rotate up front,” Cassity said. “I think that’s the best situation. When you can play defense and you rotate, at this point we’re probably almost 15 guys deep up front, which is a great problem to have. Keeping those guys fresh and letting them play no more than 30 plays a game and really rotate them and let them go out there and understanding there’s one wave, two wave, three wave of those guys that can go in there and execute at a high level.”

On average, North Texas played 74 defensive snaps a game last season (PFF). The Mean Green’s top two edge rushers (Ethan Day and Briceon Hayes) in terms of snap count, played on average 44 snaps a game, which meant there were still 30 snaps out there to be picked up. Given the Cowboys’ perceived depth, that pie could get cut in more ways in 2026 at OSU.

“That’s the biggest thing for us is just having discipline and confidence and toughness being able to play at a high level up front,” Cassity said. “And whoever we feel confident to go do that, that’s who we’re gonna let go out there and cut it loose.”