UCF edge rusher Malachi Lawrence is working to turn a spot outside the spotlight into something bigger after the Cowboys used the 23rd overall pick on him, one pick after selecting Ohio State safety Caleb Downs with the 11th pick. Acquired from the Packers in
By the time the Cowboys got to 23rd overall, Malachi Lawrence had already learned what it feels like to be overlooked.
Ohio State safety Caleb Downs went 11th overall, and Lawrence—drafted by Dallas after being acquired from the Packers in the Micah Parsons trade—arrived as the second first-round pick. The adjustment hasn’t been loud on purpose, and it hasn’t been a surprise either.
“I’m kind of used to being in the shadows,” Lawrence said, via Tommy Yarrish of the team website. “It doesn’t faze me. Once the time comes, people will see the work that you put in.”
He doesn’t expect people to scroll past his name on their own. “Not being in the spotlight, if you get on Instagram, you probably won’t scroll and see my name, but you’ll probably see some other guys’ names,” he said. “Once you kind of get to know who I was, it’s like I came out of the [shadows].”
The stakes are clear, even if the spotlight hasn’t followed yet. Lawrence is walking into a job that carries a shadow of its own: comparisons to Micah Parsons. “He will face comparisons to Parsons for his career,” the Cowboys’ draft setup makes inevitable.
Parsons, drafted earlier, posted 6.5 sacks across two seasons at Penn State before stepping into the NFL with the Cowboys. His rookie season produced 13 sacks in 2021.
Lawrence arrives with production of his own. He recorded 20 sacks across four seasons at Orlando, including seven sacks last season.
Where the work shows most right now is on the fine details of his pass rush. Lawrence spent the offseason eliminating a false step in his pass rush.
“I’ve seen great work just hitting it every day,” Lawrence said. “Just making it one of my key focuses, so I can use my explosiveness to my advantage when getting off the ball. Working with [pass-rush specialist] BT [Jordan] with that has been great.”
The Cowboys’ draft day picture may have placed Downs higher in the building’s attention. but it also set up a clear runway for Lawrence. The question isn’t whether he understands the comparison—he does. The question now is how quickly he turns the work he’s talking about into the kind of production that forces the name to stop living in the background.
Malachi Lawrence Cowboys Caleb Downs Micah Parsons trade BT Jordan UCF edge rusher NFL draft pass rush