Liufau’s lacking debut gives grim outlook on Cowboys' roster strategy
In a low-key Week 9 move, the Cowboys activated Liufau onto the roster, giving him a chance to make his season debut against the Indianapolis Colts.
Key points
- When the Dallas Cowboys drafted linebacker Marist Liufau in the third round of the 2024 NFL draft, they thought they were adding a cornerstone.
- Marist Liufau’s fit on the Cowboys From the start, it was hard to see how the 238-pound Liufau fit as an edge player on Parker’s defense.
- When Liufau was off the field, the Cowboys defense allowed a somewhat respectable 5.8 yards/play and +0.080 EPA/play.
Look, sample size is irresponsibly small here but Marist Liufau’s 2026 debut with the Dallas Cowboys left something to be desired.
When Liufau was on the field, the Cowboys suffered some of their most significant wounds of the day, yielding an average of 10.9 yards/play and allowing +0.426 EPA/play.
Additional details
- Liufau started nine games his rookie year, the most starts he’s had in a single season as a pro, but he regularly made mistakes in reads and freelanced in a way that hurt the defense overall.
- While the instinctual triggers of the edge benefit Liufau’s explosive playing style, the physicality and mismatches on the edge present major chanllenges for Liufau.
- Those challenges were seen on Sunday when Liufau was routinely taken out of plays as he scored a team-worst 35.9 defensive grade from Pro Football Focus.
- He’s a fringe roster player without a clean fit on this defense, but that’s the way things went down so there’s no choice but to roll with the punches.
- While the rookie flashed in early action, he wasn’t the consistent performer the Cowboys need him to be in order to secure an everyday starting role.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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