3 Birds, 1 Stone: How FB Sewo Olonilua makes the Dallas Cowboys roster

If Sewo Olonilua can be serviceable as a Fullback, H-Back, and Tight End he may carve our an invaluable role on the Dallas Cowboys

Undrafted free agents are always longshots. Even on a team like the Dallas Cowboys who are more open minded towards undrafted rookies than most, winning a spot on a playoff-caliber roster is a tough thing to do. But Olonilua is far from your average undrafted rookie.

At 6-foot-3 232 lbs, Olonilua is built somewhere between a tight end and a fullback. Which happens to be exactly what the Dallas Cowboys hope he plays.

At TCU, Sewo was used primarily as a running back. In the Horned Frogs committee, Sewo was the bruiser. The short-yardage guy. According to ourlads, he was one of the top short-yardage backs in the country with a high success rate in all short-yardage situations.

In total, he collected 537 yards and 8 TDs last season alone and even added 24 receptions. He showed signs of being an effective lead blocker and played H-Back roles throughout his tenure. Add in the ability to play special teams and some inline tight ends work and you have a Swiss army player who can be used a variety of ways depending on the needs of the team.

The Dallas Cowboys are unsettled at RB4 and may not even carry one at all in 2020 given the strength at the top. Anyone who takes the role of RB4 will need to help in other ways than running the ball. Nobody wants to take opportunities from Ezekiel Elliott or Tony Pollard. Special teams is a must and the ability to H-Back would be valuable since Dallas doesn’t currently have a player capable of playing H-back out of the backfield.

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Jamize Olawale likely has the main FB role locked down but Sewo could come in as a FB2 and emergency short-yardage back. Zeke was pretty efficient in short-yardage situations last season, he led the Cowboys to a 7th overall ranking in short-yardage last season.

But if Zeke fell to injury, a Sewo Olonilua – Tony Pollard pairing would be ideal and allow the Cowboys to keep Jamize in his usual role. Especially since Sewo has wide-zone experience and the Cowboys are expected to use a lot of wide-zone runs in 2020.

Mike McCarthy is known to value the tight end position more than your usual coach and the Dallas Cowboys are unproven across their TE ranks. He may be inclined to keep just three TEs if Sewo can be the unofficial No. 4 while also serving all the other aforementioned roles.

At the end of the day, the odds are clearly against Sewo Olonilua from making the team. Besides short-yardage, he doesn’t stand out in any big way and it’s going to be tough for him to flash in training camp given the wealth of talent ahead of him.

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But his skill set is versatile and we know the Dallas Cowboys value position flex so if he can be competent across the board, he could be a valuable piece in the Cowboys roster building that would round out two position groups and allow the team to go deep at positions elsewhere.

Published on 06/12/2020 at 11:01 AM
Last updated at 06/12/2020 at 09:46 AM

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