Cowboys add another Canadian
“America’s Team” continues to develop a distinct Canadian flavour, particularly on the defensive line.
On Friday, the Dallas Cowboys acquired defensive tackle Eli Ankou from the Houston Texans for a seventh- round pick, giving them some depth after releasing veteran Dontari Poe earlier in the week.
The 26- year old Ankou is from Ottawa, the same hometown as rookie Neville Gallimore, a third- round pick who was scheduled to make his first pro start Sunday night against the Philadelphia Eagles as Poe’s replacement.
Gallimore will be lining up beside Tyrone Crawford, a Windsor native who is in his eighth season with the Cowboys.
Lest we forget, the Cowboys’ long snapper for the past 151/2 seasons is Montreal’s Louis- Philippe Ladouceur.
Ankou spent his first two seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars and 2019 with the Cleveland Browns, appearing in a total of 20 games.
The Texans claimed him off waivers 11 days before trading him to Dallas.
Gallimore played in five of the Cowboys’ first seven games, including a season- high 38 snaps in last week’s loss to Washington.
“All I know is it’s an opportunity for me to step up personally,” the former Oklahoma Sooner told reporters of his making his debut as a starter during a conference call last week. “It’s really cool from the fact, obviously, coming from where I played ball at college, being faster, stronger than everybody, to being around guys where I’m not the fastest, I’m not the strongest. But just having a great group of guys who’ve been though the process and know what it takes. Just kind of leaning on them, understanding how I can be beneficial to the team by just doing my part and not having to do too much, but just doing my job the best I know how.
“It’s a learning curve. I know it wasn’t going to be easy. Heck, it wasn’t easy to get into this position anyway.”