Foxborough latest stop on Byron Cowart's road to football redemption

Byron Cowart learned his lesson.

The defensive lineman was the No. 1 recruit in the country when he stepped on campus at Auburn in 2015. Believing he was the second coming of Jadaveon Clowney, he assumed he was going to glide from Florida high school football into the SEC and start tearing things up.

But by his own admission, he wasn’t ready.

“The expectations, I didn’t really understand it,” Cowart said at the combine in March. “I didn’t know it came with it. I didn’t even know what adversity was. It was just, ‘Oh, I’m a good high school player. I think it transfers to college.’ I didn’t know the preparation. I didn’t know that just because we go through something in the meeting room, that don’t mean that you just turn your brain off.”

In two-plus seasons at Auburn, Cowart tumbled down the depth chart, finishing his time with the Tigers with just 15 tackles in 25 games from 2015-17 at Auburn. He moved from end to tackle, but never seemed to find his footing. An arrest on a marijuana-related charge added another layer to his troubles, and simply became another reason for him to leave Auburn.

But in the end, hitting the reset turned out to be the best for both sides. Freed from the expectations of being the next Clowney, after a transfer home to Florida, he found new life at Maryland with defensive line coach Jimmy Brumbaugh, the man he credits with turning him from underwhelming prospect to potential NFL draft pick. Last season with the Terps, Cowart started all 12 games, posting 38 tackles, five for loss, three sacks, two interceptions, and a forced fumble.

Cowart credits Brumbaugh with helping him get to the next level, which led to the 6-foot-3, 298-pounder getting taken in the fifth round by the Patriots this past weekend.

When reached by phone earlier this week, Brumbaugh — currently the defensive line coach at the University of Colorado — said the praise from Cowart was nice, but it was the player who used his setbacks as set-ups for future success.


“When you really think about he came through … when a player gets that No. 1 designation, there’s a lot of expectations on his shoulders, and I think he might have struggled with that at first,” Brumbaugh told BostonSportsJournal.com when asked about Cowart’s development.

“It’s hard when you have those expectations placed on you, and everyone thinks you’re the guy,” he added. “After you fall, you have to get back in there and prove you are still good. And Byron has done just that.”

Brumbaugh knew Maryland had something special in Cowart after the defensive lineman left Auburn, but enrolled in a series of classes at Hillsborough Community College in an effort to gain eligibility at Maryland. For Brumbaugh, that commitment was the first concrete sign Cowart was on a road to football redemption.

“I knew he had something special in him when he went home and took all those classes to get eligible, and then he came back,” recalled Brumbaugh. “We were in winter conditioning — he had been gone from the game for a year — and when he came back, he never missed a morning workout. He went through everything, and was encouraging the other players, his new teammates. When I saw him do that, from a professional standpoint, that really stood out. Most guys in his situation would have come back out of shape and used and fatigued, but he looked and acted like a champ. He stepped right in and was a leader.”



Cowart is well aware he’s hitting the reset button on his career again with a move from Maryland to Foxborough.

“I’ve got another opportunity to live my dreams. It’s definitely a little bit of relief,” he said after he was drafted. “I’m just happy to have a dream, and to be able to accomplish that is a relief. A lot of people have dreams and they’re not able to achieve them. So, for this to be one of my dreams, and one of my highest dreams – I’m in an organization that I always wanted to be in.”

From an on-field perspective, Brumbaugh sees Cowart as someone who can help the Patriots in a number of ways along New England’s defensive front.

“I think his strength is working as a 3-4 strong-side end who also has an ability to rush the passer off the edge,” Brumbaugh said. “In a third-down package, he can come from anywhere — inside, outside, three-technique. Wherever you need him. He’s got enough flexibility where he can play multiple spots up and down the line, many different positions.

“I think the key for him right now is to get consistent, quality reps across the board, no matter if he’s in shorts and a T-shirt or in pads. He can be moved to a few different spots — in his career, he’s moved from inside to defensive end to 4-3 inside guy back to a four technique. He can play a bunch of spots. The thing of it is, right now, he just needs to keep getting quality reps.”



Cowart said earlier this year he regularly looks at this list of college busts, using it as motivation to help fuel his game. Brumbaugh believes it’s just that sort of fire that will allow him to continue to be successful at the next level with the Patriots.

“He’s grown into the player I knew he could become,” he said. “He’s learned from the things that have happened in the past. He’s set up for success at the next level.”