The Dallas Cowboys have officially reported to Oxnard, California to kick off the 2025 season. Their first training camp practice will take place on Tuesday and they will gradually ramp up the work as the week goes on. The front office continues to churn the roster as they search for the top 53 players to take with them going into Week 1.
The 90-man roster could soon be adding a very intriguing name as soon as Monday. According to league sources, the Cowboys are expected to work out Jesse Luketa, a defensive end who played the first three years of his career with the Cardinals.
Luketa has appeared in 31 games with the Cardinals but opted not to sign his restricted free agent tender this offseason, making him a free agent.
Cowboys will workout DE Jesse Luketa when training camp opens on Monday
In addition to Luketa, the Cowboys will also workout Kameron Cline and James Houston, according to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler.
Luketa is coming off the best season of his career, recording three sacks, four tackles for a loss and a forced fumble that helped lead the Cardinals to a comeback win over the 49ers in Week 5. Luketa was on his way to becoming a full-time player for the Cardinals during the 2024 season, but a late-season wrist injury landed him on the injured reserve list.
There is no doubt that Luketa is a quality player who is only 26 years old and still ascending. And the fact that he’s recently moved to a full-time defensive end means that his best football could still be ahead of him. But the most interesting part here is his relationship with Cowboys’ star Micah Parsons. Both Parsons and Luketa were in the 2018 recruiting class and were two of the highest-rated recruits from the state of Pennsylvania.
Parsons and Luketa both committed to Penn State in 2018 and saw the field together during their freshman season. Parsons led the team in tackles as a freshman with 48, while Luketa was a part-time linebacker playing mostly on special teams.
They started together during the 2019 season and Penn State had the No. 8 defense in the country that year (16.0 points per game). The ceiling was sky high going into the 2020 season for these two linebackers, but Parsons opted out of the 2020 season due to COVID and then declared for the NFL Draft.
Meanwhile, Luketa played four seasons for the Nittany Lions, appearing in 46 games while playing both off-ball linebacker and defensive end. His best season came in 2021 when he racked up 8.5 tackles for a loss and then shined during the 2022 Senior Bowl. But Luketa fell to the seventh round of the NFL Draft after injuring his hamstring during his 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine.
But the two remained close in the NFL and it was Luketa who was in the Green Room with Parsons during the 2021 NFL Draft. There has always been the hope that the two would get the chance to play together again and that could happen now in Dallas.
The Cowboys have a lot of defensive end depth, but they could always use more. And with Luketa having experience playing both linebacker and defensive end, there is a chance that his versatility could allow him to stick on the roster. Be sure to check back in on The Landry Hat for the latest news regarding the upcoming workout for Luketa.