FRISCO, Texas – The Cowboys' first two 2025 NFL Draft picks, Tyler Booker and Donovan Ezeiruaku, have a common thread connecting them: Former NFL head coach and current Boston College head coach Bill O'Brien.
When O'Brien accepted the head coaching job at BC in February of 2024, he met one player before meeting with the rest of the team: Donovan Ezeiruaku.
"Right away, you could tell that he was a very focused guy," O'Brien said of Ezeiruaku. "You could tell he was very intense, smart and he really helped us in our first year because he bought right in and he was one of the main leaders of the team. He practiced every day, and just a great guy to coach and we're going to miss him."
Any collegiate head coach would miss a player that tallied 80 tackles, 20.5 tackles for loss and 16.5 sacks in their first season on the job. But Ezeiruaku's impact on the defense stretched beyond the stat sheet last year.
"He actually won us single handedly, won us two or three games by strip sacking the quarterback, getting the ball back to the offense," O'Brien said. "Just a very explosive player, guy that just relentless pass rusher, a relentless defender really. He plays a hundred miles an hour on every play."
The pass rushing ability is all there with Ezeiruaku, but he takes pride in his versatility being able to defend the run as well. There's still room for growth there, but O'Brien feels like the floor is already high in that department.
"He did a really good job for us against the run," O'Brien said. "He was able to set the edge, on plays that were to him or on plays that were away from him, he would chase it down. He chased down a lot of plays, caused fumbles…"
"It's obviously a higher level of competition and he's going to have to improve in his technique and the way that he approaches the running game and things like that, but I think that he'll do that and he'll be a really good player for them."
At 6'2, 248 pounds, Ezeiruaku's not the tallest or heaviest pass rusher at all. Where he makes up for that is his length, athleticism, and bend that O'Brien expects to continue to work in his favor at the next level.
"He's got really good explosion, and then he has quickness off the ball and the ability to explode past the tackle by dipping the shoulder, by using his arm length," O'Brien said. "He's got really good arm length even though he is not the tallest guy, he is got really good arm length so he can use a rip move, he can use a club move, he can get by the tackle…"
"And then he has a real knack for accelerating to the quarterback and going after the ball. So I think that his ability to rush the passer, that's a huge strength of his, and I think it'll translate well to that league."
Leadership ability has been a large emphasis for new Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer, and it was evident in a draft class that included a plethora of team captains and players with high marks for character. Ezeiruaku checked every box in that area.
"He was a leader in every phase of it," O'Brien said. "He was in the front row of the team meetings, he was a guy that worked very, very hard in the weight room, stayed extra after practice, before practice, extra film…"
"He was a voice that everybody listened to on the team, he was a unanimous selection for captain, everybody voted for him and I thought he did a really good job leading."
Turning back the clock a few years in O'Brien's career, his second and final year as the offensive coordinator at Alabama was the first year that Tyler Booker played for the Crimson Tide. He wasted no time establishing himself in a locker room full of future NFL talent right from the jump.
"I love Book[er], man," O'Brien said. "From the time we recruited him at Alabama to when he came to Alabama, I was only around him for his freshman year, but he was a leader as a freshman…"
"He's a relentless player, a tough guy, loves to finish blocks, got better and better, could pull out on counter plays, pull out on screens, thought he did a good job of anchoring the pocket. Bryce Young was our quarterback and did a good job of protecting him… I think the world of Book[er], I think he's going to be a great, great pro."
One of the few concerns about Booker coming out was his athleticism. Could he move well enough to establish running lanes and protect the passer? Was he relying purely on strength? For O'Brien, there were never any issues.
"I think he'll work hard to improve his ability, his change of direction, his lateral movement and things like that. But I think at the end of the day, I never had an issue at all with his athleticism…" O'Brien said.
"I saw him block the second level, I saw him, in the SEC, pull out on block, block DBs on screens, kickout ends on counter plays. I never had an issue with his athletic ability, I think he's going to be fine"
O'Brien has spent plenty of time in the NFL as an offensive assistant and coordinator with the Patriots in two stints, and most notably as the head coach of the Texans from 2014-2020, and he knows what it takes for players to make the jump from college to the NFL.
For Booker and Ezeiruaku, his advice lied in stacking together small improvements each and every day.
"Pro football is about the daily grind, being consistent, showing up every day," O'Brien said. You're going to have some days where they're not great. You're going up against a great tackle, a pro tackle or a pro tight end, you're in a professional defensive scheme now, you're with a lot of great people, Dak Prescott and Micah Parsons, just put your head down and go to work.
"Just take it one day at a time and try to get better. The best pros were the ones that I was around that tried to just improve every day, just one day at a time, try to get better every day."
The word "culture" in the NFL can sometimes be shrugged off as not as important as it's made out to be. Who cares about culture if you're winning, right?
Wrong, says O'Brien, who likes Schottenheimer's emphasis on the team culture and thinks that the two players he spent time coaching in college will set the standard for the Cowboys for years to come.
"I really don't know if there's anything more important," O'Brien said of culture. "I think that with the money that's involved these days, I think it's important to have high character guys that care about the game, care about each other, that always think about what's doing best for the team…"
"That's the type of guys you want in the locker room. You may not get a hundred percent that way, but the more you have, the better it's going to be. And I think there's no doubt that those two guys are great culture guys."
