Isaac Alarcón is no stranger to adversity. From the moment the talented, 6-7 kid out of Mexico was assigned to the Dallas Cowboys as a member of the International Player Pathway in 2020, many have doubted his prospects as an NFL player.

Naysayers – of which there is no shortage – have consistently pointed toward his background in Mexico's college football as being insufficient compared to what he's up against in the pros. 

Some media members have gone as far as saying that it's only a marketing stint, never mind the fact that there already have been big success stories out of the IPP before. 

Such negative comments have only increased since news broke that Alarcón will be moving to defensive line after three years of developing as an offensive lineman while on the team's practice squad.

But Isaac's response to the critics is a quiet one and it happens behind the scenes only. 

It's no different from the response he had for his teammates in Mexico when they told him he was crazy after he let them know his dream was to play in the NFL: Hard work. 

"He's eager and hungry to learn," coach Brandon Tucker from Trench Warfare told A to Z Sports. "I think he understands the position that he's in and the best part about this process with me is he is that he's always wanting to work."

Coach Tucker has worked with several Cowboys players including DeMarcus Lawrence, and Sam Williams, among others. But now he's taken on what sounds like an impossible task: Helping Alarcón transition to a position he's never played before. 

"It's never a situation where we have to ask him to, hey, let's get in the lab and get to work," adds Tucker. "Whenever I'm available, we work as much as we can."

The 24-year-old probably knows that's what he needs in order to stick around for a fourth year with the team. 

For the last three years, he's had the benefit of having a "roster exemption." As a member of the league's international program, the Cowboys were allowed to keep him around the practice squad without him counting toward the 16-player limit.

In 2023, that's no longer the case. Isaac will have to earn his spot as any other player while facing one of the toughest challenges possible.

"That is a unique challenge because he has not played the position and so he doesn't have the experience or the instinct that most guys have at this level," explains Tucker, who specializes in defensive lineman development

"So getting him to understand the basics of the position is going to be the challenge and then making the transition from O-line to D-line, you're moving forward just about all the time compared to moving backward in pass protection."

Coach Tucker has never faced a similar task himself. He's had players who have never played certain positions before. But helping a pro player move from one side of the ball to the other is a first. Asked how he approaches it, his answer is crystal clear.

"I treat it just like he's a blank canvas," he says. "And so I don't assume that he knows everything. So we literally start at A) which is, which is getting into a stance. Just like I would approach a young man that is learning the game that you know, five or six years old."

But of course, there are a couple of differences between Alarcón and a young man learning the game. They're the differences that made the Cowboys sign him to another deal even though they're unsure about how having him learn another position will play out.

He's 6-foot-7 and weighs 320 pounds.

"He is extremely athletic. He's got great mobility, he's got great bend," says Trench Warfare's coach Tucker. "He's very intelligent. And so I can tell him to do things one time and he does it. It's just how soon can he put it all together?"

For Alarcón, who's expected to be an interior defensive lineman moving forward, that means learning to play nose tackle and three-technique. What's the biggest challenge behind that? 

"What's going to be difficult for him is that because he's so tall, I'm teaching him to play with low pad level and so that's the focus of what we're doing," explains Tucker as he goes in-depth to the nitty gritty of the position:

"Obviously, at the nose position, he's going to be expected to demand double teams. And so we're keeping it very simple, making sure that he's always going north and never going south. And making sure that he understands to run his feet after contact. If he can do those things and then we get him to understand some pre-snap visual keys and then some post-snap visual keys, he should be okay because of his elite athleticism."

And that's keeping it simple. If that sounds like too much, it's because it is. But one thing is clear for the guy pursuing his dreams as he enters his fourth year as a member of the Dallas Cowboys:

"I think if anyone can get this done, he can do it." 

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