Cowboys Landing Drew Sanders Might not Be That Crazy

Former Razorbacks linebacker who proved why portal good could go home for NFL

Author:
Andy Hodges
Publish date:
Apr 19, 2023 8:04 PM EDT

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The case of former Arkansas linebacker Drew Sanders shows the good side of transfer portal.

Now it could get him to the Dallas Cowboys in next week's draft, which probably would make some fans in the state excited. The Cowboys are probably the biggest fan favorite of NFL fans here and it was that way before Jerry Jones bought the team back in 1989. A story at CowboysCountry.com on FannNation here on SI.com indicated he might actually be in consideration for the No. 26 spot. You can read their thoughts on a report putting him there and how it might be a decent move.

Apparently some NFL analysts who are refusing to accept it's not going away think it's a negative for the former Razorback who transferred into town from Alabama where is playing time was reduced because there were a couple of better players around.

After listening to some talking head on satellite radio's NFL channel drone on for a few minutes how teams probably have questions about why he didn't stay with Nick Saban. His view was teams in the league would have questions about his competitive nature that might drop him to at least the second round.

As I have usually discovered in these situations, there's a reason most of us are writing or talking about NFL stuff instead of having a job with the running of a team.

The NFL has free agency, which is essentially the transfer portal with contracts. A guess here is the only reason that exists is because the players have a union that negotiates these things under collective bargaining. College athletics legally can't make a lot of rules without getting lawyers heavily involved. That usually doesn't work well for the NCAA.

The result of all this is Sanders, who was one of the highest-rated prep players in Texas at Denton Ryan (which is just a few minutes down the road from The Star in Frisco where the Cowboys are located for those that don't know), could land back home with a team he probably couldn't ignore growing up.

All of that is because of the good side of the transfer portal because Sanders came to the Hogs. He got the playing time and showed he had All-American potential. He's hoping his name gets called on the first night of the draft.