How do you think Jay Toia played this season?
All year long we’ve looked at the rookie class and given previews and reviews on each player for every game of the season. Now let’s look back the season in its entirety and breakdown each rookie and how they performed. Let’s continue with seventh-round nose tackle Jay Toia.
Season stats- Total Snaps: 89, Total Tackles: 3, Total Pressures: 1, QB Hits: 1
Toia’s rookie season in Dallas was almost entirely a redshirt year. He appeared in only five games, recording one solo tackle and two assists, with no sacks, no forced fumbles and no other stats on the box score. PFF graded him at 29.9 overall on those limited snaps and explicitly tagged him as having not enough snaps, which tells you both how little he played and how little weight you should put on the grade at this stage.
His inactivity was about context as much as performance. Dallas went from having a thin interior to building one of the deepest tackle rooms in the league thanks to the addition of Quinnen Williams, plus Osa Odighizuwa, Kenny Clark and Solomon Thomas who carried the load inside, plus Mazi Smith for a short portion of the year. By the time the Cowboys reached Week 18, Toia was firmly listed among the regular rookies who were inactive on game day, alongside other late-round picks like Jaydon Blue and Phil Mafah.
The pre-draft scouting does highlight a few things. Toia is a massive, early-down run plugger with real strength, but his lack of length and quickness were major weaknesses, and questions about shedding blocks and holding his gap against NFL guards was always a concern. When you drop that profile into a rotation already anchored by Williams, Odighizuwa and Clark, it’s not surprising the rookie was usually the fourth or fifth option and often not dressed on Sundays.
The path forward for Toia is not easy heading into 2026. To become a viable rotational defensive tackle next season, he has to lean into what he was drafted to be, a true nose who wins early downs. That means cleaning up the weaknesses that kept him buried this year. He needs better conditioning and pad level so he can anchor versus double teams, more consistent hand usage to get off blocks instead of just absorbing them, and better first-step quickness to at least threaten the pocket on play-action and long downs.
Given the depth chart, the most realistic short-term goal is trying to pass any veteran camp bodies as the trustworthy fourth tackle who can give 10–15 snaps a week. With his size and college track record, that is possible, but on a line this deep he will have to show clear progress in camp and the preseason to avoid another year as a game-day inactive.
Category: General Sports
