In a sense, life has come full circle for Rodgers, who was born and raised in the very city where he heard his name called on April 27th as the Cowboys' seventh-round pick.
Oh, and by the way, this is a very big human and if you've ever heard this, please stop. But the Cowboys got stronger value with this selection — Rodgers is often projected as a late sixth-round pick.
Rodgers, a sturdy 6-foot-2, 330-pounder, has put on weight in preparation for his next game at the NFL level. He's definitely a master nose tackle, and there's no doubt about that when he arrives at the Cowboys' home base.
He played three years at Kentucky, earned the right to be a full-time starter, and then transferred to Auburn, where he remained in the SEC and played against NFL-level talent. He's a typical 1-tech player (center left) in that he has a very wide base, a strong core that doesn't move easily, and huge hands that rank in the 97th (!!) percentile. It has everything you could ask for. .
His biggest knock is that he's not a pure athlete by any stretch of the imagination, which is tolerable given his position. Rodgers isn't going to fly out of the gym or go fast in a straight line, but he is, frankly, who cares?
His job is to eat up double teams and push the pocket, and he does both extremely well.
Biggest actual The knock is that he needs to improve his leverage at the pro level. That's because he sometimes gets too high in his stance, which takes away his forward momentum and can be devastating at impact with his size.
The Cowboys couldn't leave this draft without getting another player who could make an impact at nose tackle, and thankfully they got that player.
