Cowboys OL Issac Alarcon moving to defensive line for 2023
Isaac Alarcón has been a project on the Cowboys offensive line since 2020.
Now the project will take an surprising turn, as the 24-year-old makes a move to the defensive line.
The club announced the switch on Monday, saying that the native-born Mexican impressed while doing some filling in on the scout team defense last season.
Alarcón played for the Mexican national team as well as in college in Monterrey. He was then allocated to the Cowboys in 2020 as part of the NFL’s International Player Pathway Program. He has been with the team’s practice squad since, but has yet to see any snaps in a regular-season game.
With three seasons now under his belt, Alarcón is no longer eligible for the roster exemption that the Cowboys have used on him up to now. For him to remain with the Cowboys, the 6-foot-6-inch, 315-pounder will have to earn his spot… playing defense for the first time.
“Issac is a big strong and athletic player and has the physical skill set to play offensive line or defensive line,” said Will McClay, the Cowboys’ VP of player personnel, per the team website. “He did some things on scout team defense toward the end of the season that opened defensive coaches’ eyes to give him a serious look on defense. His time working with the OL will also give him an understanding about what they are trying to do to him on defense.”
Alarcón was featured prominently in 2021’s edition of HBO’s Hard Knocks. He became something of a fan favorite with his own personal backstory, and his mother turned into a minor celebrity of sorts for her overenthusiastic fanning from the stands.
But Alarcón is probably best known for a clip in which he watched from afar as several Cowboys players presented quarterback Dak Prescott with a birthday cake at training camp, longingly muttering, “I wanna try the cake.”
An inside look at the Cowboys’ season on “Hard Knocks,” which starts tonight on HBO. Rookie Micah Parsons to be featured, but director Shannon Furman hopes to show more of established veterans than some “Hard Knocks” seasons of past pic.twitter.com/CNmbMQqnwd https://t.co/5PyD4n4RpL
— Michael Gehlken (@GehlkenNFL) August 10, 2021
If Alarcón ends up being part of the solution for a Dallas defensive line that needs to step up in 2023- alongside Quinton Bohanna, Neville Gallimore, Osa Odighizuwa, Chauncey Golston, and maybe Johnathan Hankins and Carlos Watkins- he will have earned his own celebratory cake, for sure.
