FRISCO, Texas — The decision to spend a third-round pick on Marist Liufau in April is proving to be brilliant on the part of the Dallas Cowboys, for a couple of reasons. The first is readily obvious following the loss of budding superstar linebacker DeMarvion Overshown, and the other is rooted in his own respective ceiling — one that appears to be exceedingly high as well.
The young duo have only played in 13 NFL games together, but Liufau speaks so glowingly of Overshown as more than simply a teammate, but also as a mentor of sorts.
"Just watching how he plays," he said of the former Longhorn. "The way he plays the game is the model for how you should play the game, and I really respect it as a young player coming into this league. You see the effort he puts in on the field and that's a testament to who he is. I really try to learn as much as I can from his game.
"It's the relentless energy he has on the field, no matter what happens. There might be plays where he's banged up and slow to get up, but he never takes his foot off of the pedal and that's one thing I model as a great linebacker."
Liufau is on track to be special in his own right.
In his first contest without Overshown, and with a lot of pressure to step up and impact games, all he did was deliver a forced fumble against Bryce Young on the heels of his 1.5-sack outing (a career-high) against Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals.
Things appear to be slowing down for him mentally and, as Liufau reflects on his season to this point — one that's seen him go from simply a base package linebacker to being thrown into lots of subpackages as well — he is seeing the growth within him translate onto the field.
"I think I'm a lot smarter," he said. "Just being in the defense and being in the meeting rooms, around vet players and other smart players, I understand the game more. I think that's one thing that's allowed me to be more confident and really having more games under my belt — makes me more confident."
A large part of his growing success is in his fiery demeanor, not unlike what is seen from players like Jourdan Lewis and, most notably as of late, Brock Hoffman; wherein the usually mild-mannered and smiley-faced Liufau flips a switch once he steps in-between the lines on gameday.
When he puts the helmet on, his mental clock is immediately set to demon time.
It's quite the sight, actually.
"I always played ball like that," he said while wearing his usual toothy grin. "I've gotten comments like that since high school. I take pride in this game, a lot, and I'm competitive. It's different from my personality [off the field]. When we get going, I just get in that competitive mode and it just happens."
Something that has not just happened, however, is the Cowboys' ability to take the ball away and to pressure the opposing quarterback, and to stop the run, over the last several weeks.
They lead the league in sacks (24) since Week 10, not so coincidentally aligning with the return of Micah Parsons, and have third-most takeaways in the NFL with 13 in that same span of time.
And they're doing it while losing key players left and right.
"One thing I take away is that this defense won't ever flinch," said Liufau. "It's something we've shown and that I've taken a lot of pride in. We won't flinch as a defense."
Their next opportunity at not flinching will be in the face of Mike Evans and a high-powered Tampa Bay Buccaneers' offense, with the goal of trying to go out on a high note in what could be their final two home games of the 2024 season.
Liufau is quickly figuring things out at the professional level, and that's not simply the luck of the Irish.
