No one is talking about the Cowboys accidentally stumbling upon advantage thanks to familiar NFL rule
As the Dallas Cowboys continue looking into adding UFL talent following two defensive signings out of the spring pro league, they currently have 88 players on their roster. Yet only 87 of them count toward the official offseason player count limit of 90. This was something the Cowboys were not counting on when they signed undrafted […]
As the Dallas Cowboys continue looking into adding UFL talent following two defensive signings out of the spring pro league, they currently have 88 players on their roster.
Yet only 87 of them count toward the official offseason player count limit of 90. This was something the Cowboys were not counting on when they signed undrafted free agent Denzel Daxon to the team.
You see, Daxon got the attention of the Cowboys' front office by his defensive play at Illinois in college. And at 6-foot-2 and 304 pounds, he's a legit roster candidate in a very thin group of nose tackles.
But they admittedly straight up didn't realize that Daxon – having been born and raised in Nassau, The Bahamas – was eligible for an international roster exemption, which means they get to carry him on the 90-man roster without him counting toward the player limit. In other words, they get to have 91 players through the offseason.
"He was officially on the roster as part of the 90 as a normal non-international guy, before Kane (Doyle-Durde, scouting assistant) called that out," said Will McClay via DallasCowboys.com's Savannah Huemoeller.
What's even more surprising to me is that Huemoeller's story is a few days old and on the official website yet I have seen no reporters or content creators bring it up on social media. I'll admit it took me longer than I'm proud to admit to figure this out.
Daxon didn't start playing football until 2016 as a 17-year-old and with the Cowboys betting on his physical traits more than anything else, the roster exemption gives the former Illinois player a great chance at developing.
But what does this roster exemption mean exactly? Let's dive into what you need to know.
How Cowboys DT Denzel Daxon's roster exemption works
This might already be a very familiar rule for you if you followed Mexican player Isaac Alarcón's journey with the Cowboys between 2020 and 2023. The exemption, which a player can benefit from for three years, means you don't count toward the following two:
- The 90-man offseason roster, meaning a team can carry 91 players including an international one.
- The 16-man practice squad, meaning you can have 17 on the squad.
Notice that the exemption does NOT work for the 53-man roster. In other words, if the Cowboys want Daxon as one of their 53, they'd need to remove the international player designation from him and treat him as any other player.
Under a recent rule adjustment from 2023, international players on the practice squad can be elevated for gameday without being signed to the 53.
Ultimately, the biggest winner out of this news are not the Cowboys themselves but Daxon, who might just guarantee himself three years of development on the practice squad if he doesn't break through the roster before.
