INDIANAPOLIS — Count on it being a very interesting and intense offseason for Marist Liufau. The young, talented inside linebacker was recently told by Christian Parker, Brian Schottenheimer and the Dallas Cowboys that he'll be moved to outside linebacker under the new-look defense in 2026.
It's a move that will be mostly new for the former third-round pick out of Notre Dame, but one he's readily embracing, also looking for a bounceback season in Year 3 as Parker takes the reins.
"I feel great and so excited," he told Nicole Hutchison of DallasCowboys.com. "It's always a blessing to have an opportunity to contribute to the team. Going to give it all I got."
What that will require is a lot of hard work and long days.
For one, Liufau will need to bulk up from his 239 lb. frame to around the 250 lb. mark. He will then, simultaneously, need to both learn and refine a pass rush arsenal for the purposes of defeating offensive tackles on a consistent basis — all things that will require the entirety of the offseason to accomplish if he's to hit the ground running in his shiny new role.
"On the pass rushing aspect of it, I reel confident in my ability to learn," Liufau explained. "Pass rushing is something I haven't done a lot, something that I never worked on as much in practice because of playing MIKE, but I know it will be a lot of fun learning the ins and outs of pass rushing."
The onus to get him where he needs to be fundamentally and technically will fall upon newly-hired outside linenbackers coach Chidera Uzo-Diribe as much as it will on Liufau. The new addition to the Cowboys' incoming 3-4 scheme will be tasked with doing for Liufau (and others) what he was able to do in his development of talent like 2025 first-round pick (11th-overall) Mykel Williams at Georgia.
Liufau and Uzo-DIribe will spend a lot of time together over the next several months to get the player nicknamed "Hawaiian Punch" ready for Week 1, and the good news is Liufau is champing at the bit to get to work in 2026, this time as a pass rusher, for the first time in his football career.
