Football
College football analyst Bruce Feldman of The Athletic, who is known for his annual “Freak List” of super-athletes, hadn’t heard of Uar Bernard earlier this week, but he along with the rest of the NFL certainly know the name now.
Uar Bernard, along with a few other prospects from the NFL’s International Player Pathway program, recently attended HBCU’s showcase, participating in on-field drills much like the combine. His performance, as well as his measurements, has several teams around the league showing interest, including the Dallas Cowboys.
In a league already filled with freak athletes, the NFL has never seen one quite like Uar Bernard. At 6’ 4 1/2”, 306-pounds with 11” hands and 36” arms, Bernard put on a show, running a 4.63 40-yard dash and jumping 10-10 in the broad jump and 39” in the vertical jump. Numbers unheard of for a player his size.
While the Cowboys have been pretty adamant they aren’t planning on taking on “project” players this year, the fact they’re showing an interest in Uar Bernard suggests they may be willing to make an exception. His talent and untapped potential makes him very much a player worth investing in and developing.
The Cowboys are a team who have plucked players from the IPP program in the past. The most recent of which was Isaac Alarcon from Mexico, who joined the team in 2020. Dallas invested a few years trying to develop Alarcon into an NFL caliber player, first as an offensive lineman, then briefly as a defensive lineman, but in the end decided to part ways.
Even though it didn’t work out with Alarcon, it doesn’t mean the Cowboys shouldn’t take the chance on Uar Bernard. His impressive measurements and testing numbers make him a unicorn worth chasing. Plus, as an IPP program player he receives a roster exemption, so he won’t count against the league mandated 53-man roster.
To secure his services though, the Cowboys would have to part with one of their late-round draft picks this year. That means using either No. 177 or No. 180 in the sixth-round or No. 218 in the seventh-round. Depending on how badly they want to develop his talents, any one of these three picks make sense, most likely being No. 218.
Among storylines already involving the Cowboys and the 2026 NFL Draft, this is yet another one that makes the big event of the offseason all the more interesting. For someone who loves to grab the media’s attention, Jerry Jones could be all over putting Uar Bernard’s name in the spotlight.
Would you spend a late-round draft pick on a project player like Bernard?
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