OXNARD, Calif. — The pen has officially married the paper, and not a moment too soon, as Donovan Ezeiruaku finally inked his rookie deal just ahead of the Dallas Cowboys' charter flight departing North Texas for training camp under the sunny skies of Southern California.
That said, the pen and paper aren't the only things acquainted this July.
Ezeiruaku has been introducing himself to offensive linemen and quarterbacks the entirety of the first week of practice, logging a list of pressures from multiple positions on the defensive line as he puts the full repertoire of pass rush moves, of which there are many, on full display.
"I learned a lot from Micah, as he's done it for the past couple years at a higher level," said Ezeiruaku of being an early standout in camp. "But, at the same time, I think I'm just sharpening the tools that I had coming out of college and getting used to the speed at the NFL level. So that's pretty much the biggest thing so far."
At some point, the NFL is going to have to try and get used to his playing speed as well.
Hyperbole aside, Ezeiruaku's first step looks comparable only to that of Micah Parsons, Sam Williams and Dante Fowler, and that type of quickness only adds to how dangerous he could become at the professional level after having already set school records at Boston College.
He attributes his arsenal to a Mamba-esque work and practice ethic — readily admitting he's spent lots of time studying not only Parsons, but also Von Miller, T.J. Watt, Nick Bosa, DeMarcus Ware and others, like Yannick Ngakoue.
"We have this saying, obviously, you guys have heard of it: 10,000 reps," he said. "That's what it's taken so far, and I know that's what it's going to continue to take to get to the level that I want to get to."
Another thing pushing the young pass rusher is the fact he's not only in a room led by Micah Parsons, but the fact it also includes the likes of Sam Williams and Dante Fowler, as far as veteran quarterback harassers go.
Why is that key? The obvious answer is he can continue to pick their brains.
The less obvious answer lies in how hyper-competitive the group is, to where they've created a system of bragging rights that, in Saturday's practice, led to Ezeiruaku playfully jawing with Fowler on certain plays.
"Yeah, we're competing every day," said Ezeiruaku. "We just had a two-minute period [today] and the first thing Dante said to me was, 'I'll meet you back there.' I said, 'No, I'm going to get there first.' And then the first play, I got back there so I asked, 'Where you at?'
"We've got this point system going on in the D-line room, and we're going back and forth. And myself and Dante, we're on the [first] team, so we're competing against each other to see who's going to get back. We're competing against the other side of the defensive line room as well."
Fowler has won his share as well in that competition, and the two will ratchet up the intensity as early as Sunday, when the Cowboys put on pads for the first time this offseason — seeing as, although he's been a menace to this point, the aggressiveness in the reps have carried a mandatory mix of "easy does it" due to players lacking protection from full speed contact.
How ready is Ezeiruaku to unleash?
"I've been ready since OTAs," he said. "Ever since they called my name on draft night."
Finally, we get to see how EZ does it, but at the NFL level.
