Sanders was one of the top prospects in the entire country in the 2016 recruiting class, a consensus five-star prospect and the number one overall recruit in the state of Pennsylvania. After a senior season that saw him rush for 1,132 yards and 18 touchdowns on just 97 carries, Sanders committed to his home state Penn State Nittany Lions.

After playing a larger role as a special teams returner in his first two seasons in State College, Sanders exploded onto the scene in his junior season, rushing for 1,274 yards on 220 carries to go along with nine touchdowns. Sanders' rushing performance placed him second in the Big 10 in rushing yards behind Wisconsin's Jonathan Taylor, and 15^thoverall in the nation.

The Philadelphia Eagles selected Sanders in the second round of the 2019 NFL Draft, where he was a solid contributor over the course of his first three seasons in Philadelphia. He finished with 2,439 rushing yards and nine touchdowns in his first three seasons, where he started 34 games and was fourth in offensive rookie of the year voting in his rookie season.

2022 marked Sanders' breakout year, where he rushed for a career best 1,269 yards and 11 touchdowns on 259 carries and was named to his first career Pro Bowl. He was the fifth leading rusher in the league in 2022, and helped the Eagles finish as a top five rushing offense and a Super Bowl appearance, where they lost 38-35 to the Kansas City Chiefs.

After a career year in 2022, Sanders signed a four-year, $25.4 million deal with the Carolina Panthers in the hopes of staying hot going into his fifth NFL season. Unfortunately, the following two seasons that Sanders spent with the Panthers were the two worst of his NFL career, where he rushed for just 637 yards and three touchdowns in 27 games with the team.

After the Panthers released him earlier in the offseason, the Cowboys signed Sanders to a one-year deal where he'll look to return to the 2022 version of himself and resurrect his career in Dallas. Early on during the media viewing periods of OTAs and minicamp, Sanders has stood out in the running back group and was seen taking more first team reps as time went along, which is a good start, but his real proving grounds will come at training camp in Oxnard.

Sanborn was rated as a consensus four-star recruit in the 2018 class out of Lake Zurich high school in Illinois, and committed to play for the Wisconsin Badgers after capping off his high school career with a state championship in Class 7A during a 13-1 season where he posted 120 tackles and three sacks.

The Sanborn family is a football family, and it started with Jack's late father Paul Sanborn, who was an offensive lineman at Oregon from 1980-82. He passed away when Sanborn was four years old, and coincidentally, 12 years to the date after his father passed, Sanborn called Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst to commit to the Badgers, saying later that "it was like it was meant to be." His younger brother Bryan played for the Badgers from 2021-2023, but retired ahead of the 2024 season after suffering several back injuries.

Sanborn started 34 games at inside linebacker in his final three collegiate season at Wisconsin, leading the team in tackles with 52 during the shortened 2020 COVID season and was named the Duke's Mayo Bowl game MVP. In 2021, Sanborn was second on the team in tackles with 91 and had the fourth most tackles for loss in the Big 10 with 16 en route to being named to the first team All- Big 10 as selected by the conference's coaches.

After going undrafted in 2022, Sanborn signed as an undrafted free agent with his hometown team, the Chicago Bears. He quickly proved himself worthy of being on the roster in his first training camp, and was signed to the 53-man roster where he ended up starting six games for the Bears in his rookie season and played in 14, posting 64 tackles, five tackles for loss and two sacks.

In the next two seasons with the Bears, Sanborn would play in all 34 of Chicago's games and combined for 100 tackles, 9 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks. He also got his first career interception, which he returned back for 42 yards after the fact in 2023 against the Kansas City Chiefs. Sanborn was the third linebacker in the rotation for Chicago alongside Tremaine Edmunds and T.J. Edwards, but still made an impact defensively for the Bears

The Cowboys signed Sanborn to a one-year deal in the offseason, reuniting him with his head coach in Chicago Matt Eberflus, who returned to Dallas this offseason as defensive coordinator. Sanborn brings a sense of familiarity with Eberflus' system to the Cowboys, who will be in need of some fresh faces at the linebacker position for at least the start of the season, and can serve as a help to his teammates that are still learning what Eberflus wants his defense to look like.

Thomas isn't simply a talented NFL player, but also a philanthropist in the local community, primarily by way of his charity, "The Defensive Line", that focuses on teaching youth the ins and outs of football but, most importantly, the importance of mental health and mental health awareness — the goal being to reduce youth suicide after having lost his sister to in the past.

Signing with the Cowboys is a big deal for Thomas, considering he is an alum of Coppell High School, located northwest of the Dallas Metroplex, and what many don't know is that his time in North Texas was preceded by several childhood years spent living in Australia.

Thomas was ranked as the nation's 20th-best overall recruit coming out of Coppell High, and a five-star recruit by at least one metric when he committed to playing for Stanford.

Hailing from a family of athletes, Thomas' parents were active at a high level in sports as well. His father, Chris, played collegiate basketball, while his mother, Martha, ran collegiate track and his uncle, Jon, became a four-time Big-Ten 400m hurdles champion at Indiana.

Thomas didn't take the field as a freshman at Stanford, but he used that as motivation to take the Cardinals and the conference by storm, winning a list of accolades as a junior, including the Morris Trophy for being named best defensive lineman in the conference in 2016.

Only one defensive end was ranked higher than Thomas as he entered the 2017 NFL Draft, and that person was none other than Myles Garrett, a nod to Thomas' near-limitless ceiling en route to becoming the third-overall pick that year.

Milton was a composite four-star recruit in the class of 2018 out of Olympia High School in Orlando, Florida. He received 25 offers in high school, but decided to commit to the Michigan Wolverines over his hometown Florida Gators, where he'd spend the first three seasons of his college football career.

After two years as a backup and a 2-3 record as the starter in Michigan's 2020 COVID season, Milton entered the transfer portal and headed to Knoxville to play at Tennessee. After serving as the backup for a majority of the 2021 season and again in 2022, until he replaced an injured Hendon Hooker at the tail end of the season. The highlight was Milton's MVP performance in the Orange Bowl against Clemson, where he threw for 251 yards and three touchdowns against the Tigers in his home state.

Milton's sixth and final season of college football saw him finally take the reigns as the starter for a team throughout the entire season, leading Tennessee to an 8-4 record with 2,813 yards and 20 touchdowns to just five interceptions over the course of the season. It wasn't the full season that Milton or the Vols wanted, but he left Knoxville with plenty of upside and more starting tape on his film heading into the NFL Draft process.

The NFL combine was made for quarterbacks like Joe Milton, who have cannons of arms that can air the ball out deep and draw "ooo's" and "ahh's" from the crowd on hand. Milton took that to the next level, airing out deep balls on go routes 70 yards or longer with a simple flick of his wrist. At Tennessee's pro day, Milton's throwing session was highlighted by an 80-yard throw that went viral on social media.

The New England Patriots selected Milton in the sixth round of the 2024 NFL Draft, where he played behind third overall pick Drake Maye for his rookie season. Milton got his first NFL shot in the Patriots' final game of the season against the Buffalo Bills, who were resting most of their starters for the playoffs, and he capitalized on his opportunity. Milton went 22 of 29 through the air for 241 yards and a touchdown, adding 10 carries for 16 yards and a rushing touchdown on the ground en route to a 23-16 win.

After the big finish to his rookie season, Milton got an early fresh start in his career when the Patriots traded him and a seventh-round pick to the Cowboys for a 2025 fifth-round pick. With both Cooper Rush and Trey Lance gone, Milton will compete with Will Grier for the backup quarterback job in Dallas behind Dak Prescott, with the chance to earn a long-term role on the team going forward if he develops.

Pickens was a composite five-star prospect out of Hoover, Alabama in the 2019 recruiting class. After initially committing to Auburn, he flipped to Georgia on National Signing Day and would go on to play for the Bulldogs in all three seasons of his collegiate career.

Pickens' brother Chris Humes, was a star defensive back at Arkansas State and later spent a training camp and preseason with the Raiders.

Heading into his junior season, Pickens suffered a torn ACL in spring practice, a brutal blow for Georgia's offense and Pickens' NFL outlook. He'd end up returning later on in the season, and stamped himself as a top player in the upcoming draft with a 52-yard diving catch in the 2021 national championship game against Alabama, which Georgia won 33-18.

In his rookie season with the Steelers, Pickens made a one-handed catch against the Browns that had some NFL pundits comparing it to Odell Beckham's catch against the Cowboys in 2014.

In 2023, Pickens led the entire NFL in average per catch at 18.1 yards. One of the games that catapulted him to that lofty average occurred against the Bengals. Pickens not only hauled in an 86-yard touchdown pass – the longest reception from scrimmage by any NFL player that year – but also had a 66-yarder in the same game. Pickens is one of just 13 players in NFL history to record multiple TDs of 65 yards or more in the same game.

After a brief stint with No. 13, Pickens is now settled into the jersey of No. 3 after a switch with defensive end Dante Fowler Jr. Pickens attended nearly every one of the voluntary OTAs and all of the minicamp, alongside CeeDee Lamb. Pickens and Lamb are looking to become just the fourth wide receiver duo in Cowboys history to have 1,000-yard seasons in the same year. Only Amari Cooper/Michael Gallup (2019), Terry Glenn/Terrell Owens (2006) and Tony Hill/Drew Pearsons (1979) have accomplished that feat.