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High 5: Rising stocks from Senior Bowl & Shrine Bowl

Published

1 year ago

February 3, 2025

High 5: Rising stocks from Senior Bowl & Shrine Bowl

(Editor’s Note: Who doesn’t love lists? Throughout the year, ‘High 5’ will provide a top five list for many of the critical topics surrounding the Dallas Cowboys 2025 offseason.)

When the college football season ends, the attention immediately turns to the NFL Draft and the prospects that are available. While the regular season tape will be the most impactful to their overall draft stock, events like the Senior Bowl and Shrine Bowl give a final up-close look for NFL teams to evaluate future talent.

Senior Bowl week began on Monday as players arrived in Mobile, Alabama, then continued with three practices from Tuesday to Thursday before the American and National teams faced off Saturday.

Shrine Bowl week began much closer to home as the week of practice began last Saturday at the University of North Texas in Denton and ran through Tuesday with four practice sessions at the home of the Mean Green. Then, AT&T Stadium took center stage as the East and West teams battled in Arlington.

Let’s rank the top five players that improved their draft stock from a week full of football between the Shrine Bowl and Senior Bowl, starting with the Reese’s Senior Bowl.

Jack Bech – WR (TCU) – One of the great stories of the week, Bech stood out as soon as he took the field for National Team practice on Tuesday. Just one month after his brother passed away in the deadly New Orleans attack, he honored him by winning the overall MVP award and catching the game-winning touchdown.

It wasn’t just the story that stood out, his play spoke wonders too. His six catches for 68 yards in the game included a down-field strike from quarterback Jaxson Dart (Ole Miss) for 39 yards. His performance capped a dominant week of practice where he was named the top wide receiver on the national roster by his peers.

Oluwafemi Oladejo – LB (UCLA) – Among possibly the strongest position group on Senior Bowl rosters, it was a surprise to see Oladejo jump off the defensive line tape like he did. A converted middle linebacker during his time at UCLA, made the move to full-time edge at the end of his career and showcased his pass rush ability at a high level throughout the week.

Friday’s practice was dominated by Oladejo as he set the tone for the entire defensive line unit and was named the defensive line’s practice player of the week. You can read about his practice performances in our Day 3 practice notebook. Then, he followed with two sacks in the Senior Bowl

Grey Zabel – OL (North Dakota State) – Just like the defensive line, it’s hard to stand out on the offensive front as well during events like this. However, Grey Zabel appeared to be a quick riser and earned the start at guard for the National team this week. North Dakota State consistently sends players to the Senior Bowl who continue to show their ability to compete with prospects from the biggest schools in the country. Add Zabel to the list.

He started the game with a couple of tough reps against LSU’s Sai’vion Jones, but settled in and helped pave the way on the ground for Woody Marks (USC) and Ollie Gordon II (Oklahoma State). He was voted the overall practice performer of the week after dominating individual drills and leading the charge across the practices as well.

Elijah Arroyo – TE (Miami) – Entering the week, Arroyo was projected day two tight end selection. However, the Frisco, Texas native played so well in practice he may have put himself in the first-round conversation. He outperformed nearly every player at a stacked tight end position and was able to see only limited action on Saturday.

Only a few snaps on Saturday and it was still enough to make an impact as he caught a two-point conversion after his team’s opening touchdown.

Keondre Jackson – DS (Illinois State) – Finally, it wouldn’t quite be the Senior Bowl without spotlighting a ‘small-school’ performer. Jackson was the best of the bunch with a nearly perfect week, if it wasn’t for a double-pass touchdown allowed in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s game.

He was also given a practice award, as the top defensive back on the National squad after votes from his wide receiver and tight end teammates. Jackson finished his final season with Illinois State with nearly 100 tackles and three interceptions as a senior.

The American team defeated the National team, 22-19 in a thrilling finish at Hancock Whitney Stadium on the campus of South Alabama. Now, let’s look at who put together a great week with the East-West Shrine Bowl.

Jordan Phillips – IDL (Maryland) – It could be argued that no one had a more complete week than Maryland defensive tackle Jordan Phillips. The 320-pounder showed his strength and quickness off the line of scrimmage is NFL ready, dominating in both the four practice sessions and the game as well.

Phillips finished his college career without a sack, but did tally 31 run stops and 26 pressures. That production, paired with his Big Ten tape, could present one of the great run-stoppers available in this year’s NFL Draft class.

Efton Chism – WR (Eastern Washington) – Multiple wide receivers put together solid weeks of practice, but never really made an impact in the game. Guys like La’Johntay Wester (Colorado), KeAndre Lambert-Smith (Auburn), and Konata Mumpfield (Pittsburgh). That allowed one receiving prospect to stand out from the rest. Efton Chism finished as the game’s leading receiver, 4 receptions for 43 yards on four targets, including an acrobatic hurdle over a safety for a first down.

He tallied an incredible 3,840 yards and 37 touchdowns during his time with the Eagles. His wins this week happened with a quick release at the line of scrimmage and great ball tracking skills. Watch his name sneak up draft boards.

Johnny Walker – Edge (Missouri) – There are times during these all-star events where certain players jump off the screen. Walker didn’t even need the screen, you could just see the box score from Thursday’s game and see he had a good week. The Mizzou Tiger finished with two sacks and a forced fumble, pressuring the West backfield nearly once a possession.

Paired with his consistent dominance in practice, Walker put together the best week for edge rushers in the event. One scout in attendance said he may have put himself into the day two conversation with his length (33-inch arms), and explosiveness of the line of scrimmage mentioned as a plus.

Nohl Williams – CB (California) – Williams didn’t take long to show off the highly praised ball skills that he entered the week with. In the first one-on-one session in Denton, he broke up a pass against UNLV wide receiver Ricky White but struggled to keep his footing on the later reps between the two. Instead of sulking in his early struggles, he showed up early to the Sunday practice and never looked back.

He was consistent in his footwork, stayed fluid in coverage, and provided a challenge to each receiver he was paired against. All capped off by a pass breakup that nearly saw Williams tip a pass to his safety help, and college teammate Marcus Harris, for an interception in the first quarter of the game.

Chandler Martin – LB (Memphis) – Throughout the season, the Memphis Tigers were more-so known for their offensive prowess, despite the incredible production from Martin at linebacker. He finished as a first-team All-American Athletic Conference selection and the defensive MVP of the 2025 Frisco Bowl.

He stepped into Shrine Bowl week and began with an interception in coverage against Miami receiver Sam Brown on the first day. A little undersized, he’s shown an ability to tackle consistently, cover consistently, and perform against a higher level of competition like Florida State, West Virginia, and the players in the East-West Shrine Bowl. That’s a pretty good trio.

The East roster dominated the 100th East-West Shrine Bowl, winning 25-0 in the first shutout that the all-star game has seen since 1969.

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Daisy’s Memorial Dog Strick Library| The Post

Published

4 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Daisy’s Memorial Dog Strick Library| The Post

A tribute to a family dog is now helping other animals. Daisy’s Memorial Dog Stick Library encourages dogs to take and leave sticks on their walks near White Rock Lake. Kimberly Haley-Coleman stopped by The Post to talk about the tribute.

Posted March 2, 2026 4:21pm CST

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Wilonsky: A mom deported, 4 kids left behind and an 80-year-old Dallas Girl Scout troop leader’s good deeds

Published

16 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Wilonsky: A mom deported, 4 kids left behind and an 80-year-old Dallas Girl Scout troop leader’s good deeds

Early the morning of Feb. 9, Ana, a 45-year-old mother of four, woke up in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center outside Abilene. Bluebonnet, it’s called, so named for the toxic state flower. She was hustled from bunk to bus for a ride to Del Rio. By noon, she was standing in the middle of the International Bridge that connects Del Rio with Ciudad Acuña across the Mexican border.

Ana was told only: You’re free to go – back to Monterrey, which she left in 2006 and where her parents still lived. She did not know how she was going to get there. Or when she would see her girls again.

Only five weeks earlier, Ana had a job at an ice cream shop at Lombardy Lane and Brockbank Drive in northwest Dallas, where she’d worked for six years. A single mother, she alone cared for her daughters, two of whom are in elementary school – fifth and sixth grades – and struggle with dyslexia. Her 12-year-old, diagnosed with severe depression, had twice tried to harm herself just last year. Her eldest, a 17-year-old senior at Thomas Jefferson High School, is set to begin college in the fall.

Ana crossed the Rio Grande on an inflatable raft near Laredo 20 years ago for a life she couldn’t find in Mexico. She met a man in Lewisville with whom she had four children. He abused her, she said, so she left again, to start over in northwest Dallas.

Immigration officials gave her a preliminary court hearing: Aug. 24, 2027. Ana, who has no criminal record, went to the ICE offices on Stemmons Freeway around New Year’s Eve for her annual check-in.

A plethora of messages were created on handmade signs for attendees to hold during an ICE... — A plethora of messages were created on handmade signs for attendees to hold during an ICE vigil held outside the Dallas ICE field office, located at 8101 N. Stemmons Freeway in Dallas, on July 27, 2025.
Steve Hamm / Special Contributor
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And every time she returned home to her girls. Until Dec. 30, 2025, when she was detained by officers, then shuffled around the state – Dallas to Alvarado to Abilene – before being sent back to Mexico, leaving behind daughters, all born in Dallas, to whom she did not get to say goodbye.

“I was so scared,” said Ana, who, with her eldest, agreed to talk to me if I did not use her full name or her children’s names.

“And I was in shock,” she said. “The whole morning I was just praying thinking about what to do next. I thought I would see my lawyer or talk to someone about what was going on, but the way they took us, no one explained anything to us. I know I did something wrong when I came over without my paperwork, as I should have. But I wasn’t stealing or hurting someone; I was working for my family, providing.”

Ana spoke by phone from Monterrey, where, last week, she buried her father, whose heart failed him days after she was left on that bridge. She began to cry.

“The fact that they just took apart my family, it’s breaking my heart,” Ana said, trying to catch her breath. “There are a lot of people who are doing bad things. We’re just trying to provide for our kids. Why us?”

But she knows why. Everyone does. Because there have been so many stories like this in recent months it’s impossible to keep track.

Ana was transferred to and deported from the Bluebonnet Detention Center in Anson on Feb.... — Ana was transferred to and deported from the Bluebonnet Detention Center in Anson on Feb. 9. 2026.
Eli Hartman / AP

Just last week, María de Jesus Estrada Juarez of California, who came to the U.S. when she was 15 and was a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipient, was arrested during her regular check-in and sent back to Mexico. In Alaska, a mother and her three children were sent to Tijuana within 36 hours of being detained by ICE. NBC News also recounted the story of an 11-year-old girl, a U.S. citizen, whose brain-tumor treatment was interrupted when her parents were deported to Mexico.

The Texas Civil Rights Project has been trying to reunite the parents with their 11-year-old girl so she can get the care she needs. I asked the Austin-based organization if they kept track of the number of parents without criminal records deported to Mexico while their children are left behind. A spokesperson said they do not maintain a database tracking such cases, but that “it happens very often under this administration.”

Which is more or less what other immigration advocacy and legal nonprofits told me: We don’t track that data. But it’s, you know, a lot. ICE didn’t respond to emails asking for that information, either.

But just because we’re inundated with these stories doesn’t mean we should turn a deaf ear to them, especially when they involve our neighbors. This feels especially personal, as Ana’s eldest will graduate from my alma mater – if she can survive the next few months of waking her sisters each morning, getting them to school, working late hours at her fast-food job, dealing with grown-up responsibilities suddenly thrust upon her and trying, somehow, to fit in homework.

“It wasn’t really a choice for me,” the 17-year-old told me. “If I don’t do it, who will? The hardest part is getting up every morning, because there’s no break for the rest of the day – it’s the same thing every day, the same loop. And if there is, I have to do laundry or get these girls to their Girl Scouts things.”

Lynn Wilbur has been a Girl Scouts troop leader since 1983. For the last decade, she's been... — Lynn Wilbur has been a Girl Scouts troop leader since 1983. For the last decade, she’s been part of an outreach group within the Scouts that helps girls who otherwise couldn’t afford to be part of the organization.
Courtesy Lynn Wilbur

I never would have known of Ana’s story, and that of the children left behind, had I not been forwarded a newsletter from Now>Forward, the nonprofit once known as North Dallas Shared Ministries. In the newsletter was a brief telling of the tale, along with a plea for assistance, as the girls need food, rent, uniforms.

I was told to call Lynn Wilbur, a Girl Scout troop leader since 1983, when her own daughter turned 5, and, for the last decade, leader of an outreach program that provides financial assistance for girls who want to be Girl Scouts but can’t afford dues, uniforms, supplies, field trips. “Anything that has to be paid for,” Wilbur said.

There are some 60 girls in the program, most spread across Dallas ISD elementary schools, including Ana’s three youngest daughters. Where once the program was funded by a foundation, though, the troop is having to depend on private donations – begging and scrounging, Wilbur said.

“Now, we’re just trying to help the girls pick up the pieces, along with their lives,” the 80-year-old said. When I called, she was with Ana’s daughters.

Most of the girls in Wilbur’s troop are from Spanish-speaking homes. This is the first time one of their parents has been deported. But, she fears, it will not be the last. One mother recently asked Wilbur if she would take her daughter if she, too, is deported.

“The amount of fear is unbelievable,” Wilbur said. “My house is one place they let them come because they know they’d have to kill me before I let them in the door. This has got to stop. Unless good people step up and let their voices be heard nothing is going to change. That’s why I am talking to you. We can’t let this keep happening, especially to children.”

Wilbur taught Ana’s eldest how to pay bills, how to buy a car when her mother’s recently broke down, how to deal with insurance, how to be a grown-up at 17. The TJ student was never a Girl Scout. But Wilbur, the living embodiment of a slogan that demands a Girl Scout do a good deed daily, has surely taught her how to be prepared.

“Miss Lynn has always made us feel like we’re important, that we’re loved,” Ana said. Another small sob. “That we’re human.”

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NFL insiders share Cowboys rumors from the combine

Published

1 day ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

NFL insiders share Cowboys rumors from the combine

The Dallas Cowboys had an eventful NFL combine. Jerry Jones and Stephen Jones were working the media circuit, fans got to learn more about Christian Parker through a few interviews, and there was drama surrounding the reports of Brandon Aubrey’s contract negotiations.

A lot of knowledge is shared throughout the week, both on camera and behind closed doors, as the NFL landscape is set to shift as free agency approaches in just a few weeks. Jeremy Fowler and Dan Graziano, NFL Insiders for ESPN, emptied their notebooks on what they learned throughout the week.

Here are a few nuggets and takeaways that matter for the Cowboys.

1. How Dallas attacks the start of free agency

Jerry Jones held court on his bus during combine week and talked to media members about how the team will be active in free agency. The majority of their moves could come on the defensive side of the ball as Dallas gets their new defensive coordinator the pieces he needs to run his defense.

Clarence Hill Jr. of DLLS Cowboys was the first to report the Cowboys’ potential interest in Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Nakobe Dean. Fowler doubles down on that idea.

The Cowboys are crafting a detailed free agency plan to bolster their defense. The new scheme under coordinator Christian Parker needs replenishment. Eagles linebacker Nakobe Dean is someone to watch as a green-dot player in the middle of the defense.

Dean has been with the Eagles for four seasons after being drafted in 2022. When healthy, Dean has shown flashes of the player people viewed as the one he could become coming out of Georgia in college. The biggest concern with handing him a big contract is his health.

Out of 68 possible games, Dean was on the field for just 47 of them. He’s battled injuries throughout his young career, so if he’s expected to be the one leading Dallas’ defense, Dean has to be on the field more than he’s shown to this point.

2. The Cowboys will look to add a pass rusher

The Cowboys’ leader in sacks from last year is Jadeveon Clowney, who is set to hit the open market. Two other edge rushers for Dallas are free agents in Sam Williams and Dante Fowler Jr. Both could return to the Cowboys, but the front office might look to not only upgrade the position but also go after one of the top free agents if the price is right.

Fowler: The Cowboys will monitor the top of the pass-rush free agent options, too. They aren’t guaranteed to spend big, but I believe they will get a pass rusher at some point.

Later in the notebook, Fowler says, “Trey Hendrickson (Bengals) and Odafe Oweh (Chargers) will probably not be franchise-tagged.” That means two more premier edge rushers could be on the market. A few beat reporters have mentioned Hendrickson’s name as a possibility this offseason, but will he command too much money that Dallas is unwilling to spend? Probably.

What about Jalen Phillips? Can the Cowboys pull two former Eagles in free agency away from their rivals because of their connection to Parker? The keyword Fowler adds when it comes to Dallas’ interest in the best available pass rushers is “monitor.” If the numbers get outrageous, then they might go in a different direction. A name that could make a lot of sense for the Cowboys is Kwity Paye of the Indianapolis Colts.

He’s totaled 30.5 sacks over his five seasons in the NFL and could play a similar role in Parker’s defense to what Brandon Graham had in Philadelphia with inside-out versatility.

3. Dallas may want to add a few pieces in the secondary

One of Jerry Jones’ biggest regrets in recent history seems to be not re-signing Jourdan Lewis last offseason. Dallas would have been much better off with Lewis, given his skill set, familiarity with the defense, and leadership off the field. His presence was missed in more ways than one. It sounds like Jerry isn’t willing to make the same mistake twice.

Fowler: They [Dallas] will also comb the free agent safety class (Arizona’s Jalen Thompson makes sense), and they need a nickel corner. Dallas has felt the void since Jourdan Lewis left.

Christian Parker talked about how important the nickel position is for his defense at his introductory press conference. There are a few free agent corners out there who should be an upgrade from what Dallas had last year, but the route that makes the most sense is drafting a cornerback in the first round.

Donovan Wilson and Juanyeh Thomas are free agents, leaving Malik Hooker and Markquese Bell as the two players under contract on the team with starting experience at safety. Bell is someone who could play a more significant role in Parker’s defense given his position versatility. Where does that leave Hooker? Dallas could save almost $7 million if they cut him before June 1, but how does Parker feel about him fitting into his scheme?

How Dallas approaches the safety position at the start of free agency will tell us a lot.

4. Brandon Aubrey could have a contract sooner rather than later

You know the negotiations with Aubrey go sideways when he, his wife, and Todd France (Aubrey’s agent) go to Instagram and call the reports around it all “fake.” The Cowboys have remained optimistic in getting a deal done with Aubrey to make him the NFL’s highest-paid kicker. The holdup is just how much Dallas is willing to go and raise that number.

The Cowboys made an offer to Aubrey last year to be the highest paid at his position. The number has never been $7.5 million per year. Aubrey and his camp reportedly asked for $10 million per year, which would blow past the current mark with Harrison Butker ($6.4 million annually), but that has also been a disputed figure.

If it comes down to it, the front office is prepared to apply a second-round tender on their kicker, bringing his salary for 2026 between $5.5-5.8 million. It seemed as though negotiations had stalled after things got out of hand, but a resolution may be coming soon.

Graziano: Sabre rattling aside, I expect the Cowboys to reach a deal with Brandon Aubrey at some point in the first week or two of March that makes him the highest-paid kicker in the league. If they don’t get a deal done by the restricted free agent tender deadline, Dallas plans to put a second-round tender on Aubrey. That means he’d make $5.767 million this season if the two sides don’t reach a deal and the Cowboys would get a second-round pick if another team made Aubrey a contract offer they didn’t want to match.

Getting a deal done within the next 10 days before the second-round tender would be ideal for both parties. The front office would lock up the league’s best kicker long-term, and Aubrey will be making more than the price that comes with the tag.

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