Cowboys fill a big need, draft Notre Dame LB Marist Liufau with the 87th pick

A football player in a white and yellow uniform with number 8, resembling Marist Liufau, stands on the field during a game, gesturing with his left hand.

The Dallas Cowboys have selected linebacker Marist Liufau from Notre Dame with the 87th pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.

He has good size and made 25 starts over the last two years for the Irish.

He is a GREAT down hill player, he struggles in the pass game, but if he can get you going downhill, he is as good as any linebacker in this draft.

Dustin Mosher

@Dustin_Mosher

#NotreDame LB Marist Liufau thread:Liufau is one of the players that I am most excited to watch at the Senior Bowl. He is 6'2'', 235lbs and runs a 4.60 40 yard dash. pic.twitter.com/C2ROox6Orh

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January 25, 2024

Drafting him was a need for this team. A bigger need than running back or wide receiver. My guess is Zeke is probably on his way back to Dallas and the Cowboys will bank on Jalen Tolbert making a nice jump in 2024.

Liufau could be a solid rotational linebacker for Dallas. He has a good frame with at least decent movement skills to help in coverage, and he has experience playing multiple linebacker spots in college, giving him some positional versatility.

https://twitter.com/PFF_Cowboys/status/1784050230167535919

Overall

The second day of the NFL Draft is now over, and I will say outside of the Marshawn Kneeland pick at 56, it was a productive day for the Dallas Cowboys.

Kneeland was one of the best available players on the board at that time, but I think they still had bigger needs than a player who won’t start day one.

The Cowboys don’t pick again until the 5th round so this might be the last we see of any players who could step in right away and get playing time early for Dallas.

Michael Gehlken

@GehlkenNFL

We'll see how Cowboys LB Marist Liufau, a third-round pick, contributes on defense as a rookie. But he can be comfortably projected as a core special teamer from the jump. Trend of physicality on Day 2 for Dallas.

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April 27, 2024

Nonetheless, a solid day for the Cowboys. Don’t let them not taking a running back get you down, they needed a linebacker more than a back at this point. They only had two on the depth chart, adding here was the smart pick.

Look for the Cowboys to take a RB and a WR the next time they are on the clock.

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Shane Taylor

Shane Taylor is a sports journalist with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and seven years of professional media experience. He has written 766 articles for InsideTheStar.com, reaching over 928,000 readers. Prior to Inside The Star, Shane worked as a Sports Reporter for Journal Star and a Regional News Reporter for Shaw Media. He currently works in the TRIO Upward Bound department at a junior college.