Oklahoma Sooners Football: DT Neville Gallimore selected in third round by Dallas Cowboys in 2020 NFL Draft

With the No. 82 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, the Dallas Cowboys have selected Oklahoma Sooners defensive tackle Neville Gallimore! He’s the second Sooner to go to Big D in this draft, joining first-round selection CeeDee Lamb.

The Cowboys are getting themselves an athlete.

Gallimore had been penciled in as a Day 2 pick for this very reason, as he was also able to run an incredibly impressive 4.79 40 at 304 lbs. However, if he had been afforded more than one season in Alex Grinch’s current scheme, he might’ve been off the table before Friday.

After redshirting in 2015, Gallimore figured to receive some snaps at defensive end as a redshirt freshman. However, Oklahoma would end up taking plenty of hits to its depth up front, and the result was six mid-to-late-season starts. His debut against Houston also made him only the second Canadian ever to play for the Sooners, following in the footsteps of Josiah St. John in 2014.

Gallimore’s sophomore campaign — which included a move to defensive tackle — was expected to be one of the breakout variety, but that didn’t quite come to fruition. He did indeed start the season with plenty of promise before a combination of injury issues and the defense’s overall ineptitude derailed things to some extent.

As a junior in 2018, Gallimore was moved to nose guard. The season went a bit more smoothly than did the previous one, but Oklahoma’s defensive line continued to have trouble providing pressure in Mike Stoops’ scheme. He would finally catch a break in January of 2019, when the University of Oklahoma hired Ohio State co-DC Alex Grinch to implement his “Speed D” approach. This would entail two big things for the defensive line:

• An emphasis on slimming down the personnel, which would allow players like Gallimore to move a bit more quickly. He would end up going down to around 300 pounds in the spring of 2019.
• The change to a one-gap scheme, with an emphasis on getting around blockers and creating havoc in the backfield (as opposed to simply eating up blocks).

Both of these things benefitted Gallimore immensely, as it finally allowed him to fully utilize his athletic gifts. The end result was a First Team All-Big 12 nod and a considerable amount of NFL Draft hype.

As far as nicknames are concerned, “Big Canada” is pretty self-explanatory. However, if you happen to be a fan of his new team, we will also accept “The Canadian Bulldozer”.