{"id":5419,"date":"2025-07-18T12:14:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T12:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/5419\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T12:14:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T12:14:08","slug":"n-j-native-inks-rookie-deal-amid-controversy-for-2nd-round-nfl-draft-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/5419\/","title":{"rendered":"N.J. native inks rookie deal amid controversy for 2nd-round NFL Draft picks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Williamstown High standout Donovan Ezeiruaku agreed to terms with the Dallas Cowboys<\/a>, signing a four-year deal worth $10.1 million on Thursday and ending what could have been a possible training camp holdout. <\/p>\n

The contract dispute came at an interesting time in the National Football League. Like Ezeiruaku, at least 20 other rookies who were drafted in the second round of the NFL Draft in March, have yet to sign their contracts as agents and teams negotiate their players\u2019 values. <\/p>\n

That has changed<\/a> over the last few days, however, as several players have come to terms.<\/p>\n

Despite the contract dispute, Ezeiruaku participated in rookie minicamp, organized team activities and mandatory minicamp. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing I\u2019m worried about,\u201d Ezeiruaku said earlier in June. \u201cI\u2019m just so grateful to be a Dallas Cowboy.\u201d<\/p>\n

A defensive end, Ezeiruaku blossomed into one of college football\u2019s top players last season in his senior season at Boston College. Last season, Ezeiruaku racked up 80 tackles and 16 1\/2 sacks on his way to becoming Boston College\u2019s 14th consensus All-American player. <\/p>\n

In addition to the All-American honors, Ezeiruaku won the Ted Hendricks Award as college football\u2019s top defensive end and was named the Atlantic Coast Conference\u2019s Defensive Player of the Year. <\/p>\n

Ezeiruaku graduated from Williamstown High in 2021, where he helped lead one of South Jersey\u2019s top programs. As a junior, Ezeiruaku helped lead Williamstown to a 12-1 record a South Jersey, Group 5 championship. <\/p>\n

This April, the standout pass rusher was chosen by the Cowboys with the 44th overall pick in the second round. <\/p>\n

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting us with a subscription.<\/p>\n

Patrick Lanni may be reached at planni@njadvancemedia.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Williamstown High standout Donovan Ezeiruaku agreed to terms with the Dallas Cowboys, signing a four-year deal worth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":["post-5419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}