A few days into the Dallas Cowboys’ 2024 training camp, Micah Parsons offered high praise for a rookie teammate.
“I think he’s a young Cam Jordan,” he said. “He’s got that dog in him. He’s got unteachable characteristics.”
Marshawn Kneeland was flattered to get that kind of compliment, from one of the NFL’s best players, comparing him to an eight-time Pro Bowler who is among the league’s most respected ambassadors.
“I definitely appreciate that,” Kneeland said at the time. “Great athlete. Great person. Micah said he wanted to sit down and dissect some Cam Jordan film with me. We’re gonna get around to that. It’s a great feeling to have somebody like Micah speak so highly about me.”
This fall, Kneeland was in the midst of his second NFL season in Dallas, a career that so far had included flashes of promise and two significant injuries. On Monday night he scored his first career touchdown, falling on a blocked punt in the end zone against the Arizona Cardinals.
But Thursday brought the awful news that Kneeland was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 24. His family and teammates are mourning the person he was and would have been. This is a look back on the player he was, and what the Cowboys hoped he’d become.
A star at Western Michigan, Kneeland was highly regarded coming into the 2024 NFL Draft despite the lack of a blueblood pedigree for WMU’s program. The Athletic’s draft expert, Dane Brugler, ranked Kneeland as the fifth overall edge rusher, with a first-second round grade.
“He uses his long arms and bully hands to get loose,” Brugler wrote about Kneeland, his No. 32 overall player in the class. “Though he lacks the rush savvy that leads to high-end production, he is explosive in his movements with the power to push the pocket or plant ball carriers. Overall, Kneeland is still taking classes in the art of the pass rush, but he is charged up into contact and displays twitch throughout his frame, which allows him to defeat blockers in different ways. He projects as a starting base end whose best football is yet to come.”
The Cowboys had a similar feeling about the 6-3, 270-pound Kneeland. They selected him in the second round, with the 56th overall pick.
“The number one thing about him is the high effort and motor that he plays with,” Cowboys vice president of player personnel Will McClay said after Kneeland was drafted. “Then to be talented, physically talented enough to play at this level, we noticed him early on.”
Kneeland said he had “decent” communication with the Cowboys during the pre-draft process, but he was surprised when Dallas ended up picking him.
With Dorance Armstrong leaving in free agency, the plan was for Kneeland to pair with DeMarcus Lawrence, Micah Parsons and Sam Williams as a talented group of edge rushing options.
Cowboys second round pick DE Marshawn Kneeland was a safety his freshman year of high school: “I’ve always had a good motor. When I was smaller, obviously you run more. As I put on weight, I continued to run a lot. So, I think it comes natural.” pic.twitter.com/6wxhCLUcNd
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) May 11, 2024
Lawrence also praised the rookie during training camp.
“He got taught pretty well coming up in college and high school,” Lawrence said. “Glad we got him. He’s a hell of a draft pick for us. I feel like he’s gonna help us out a lot this year.”
When asked late in the 2024 training camp if he had set any goals for his first season, Kneeland responded: “Defensive Rookie of the Year.”
Williams suffered a season-ending knee injury during that camp, opening up an opportunity for Kneeland.
“I got to step up,” Kneeland said. “I got to be ready to play that much more. … With (Williams) here, obviously I was still playing a good amount, but now it’s that much more reps I have to take. I just got to step it up a notch. (I want to show) I can pass rush too. I’m not just doing that in the MAC. I can do that here too.”
Kneeland was playing 25-30 defensive snaps per game through the first month of his rookie season. Through those first four games he had eight tackles, a tackle for loss, three quarterback hits and a pass defended. But he suffered a right knee injury in Week 5 at Pittsburgh, his first career start, and missed the next five games. He finished his rookie season with 14 tackles, two tackles for loss, a fumble recovery and three quarterback hits in 11 games.
“It started off decent,” Kneeland said of his rookie year in an interview with DallasCowboys.com. “Obviously I wish I could have made more plays. Just being a rookie, I had a lot of outside stuff going on. But I feel like, as I really started to develop and understand the game and it started slowing down as a rookie, then I got injured.
“I knew the only reason they didn’t want me to just go straight back out there and get a lot of reps is because they want me to have a good career and not perhaps go back out there and re-injure something, and then everybody is like, ‘Oh, he might be injury prone and this and that.’ I always stay positive in that light. Looking forward to this year, I’m looking forward to being mostly healthy.”
He entered his second season healthy, looking to make a bigger impact under a new defensive coordinator. Mike Zimmer did not return after his lone season in that role; Matt Eberflus was hired to replace him. Kneeland liked the scheme changes of an attack front where there wasn’t as much reading and reacting — he could just run and make plays. He said he spent the offseason refining his hand usage and get-off.
When it came to interactions with the media, Kneeland was typically warm and inviting at his locker. He wasn’t interviewed often, but when he was he was friendly and generous with his time. His last at-length discussion with reporters came in August, the day after Dallas traded Parsons.
“At first everybody was kind of, like, shocked that it happened,” he said. “But obviously we’re all grown men so we kind of — not get over it, but we kind of just move past it. Ball it up and throw it in the trash, like it is what it is and how can we get better?
“I have faith in all my guys. I think everybody in the room is going to be able to push forward and do what we got to do and make the most of it.”
Micah Parsons on the death of his former teammate Marshawn Kneeland:
“I have nothing but high respect for him.”
“If there’s anything his family needs, I’ll be the first person to help or offer anything that I can do … I just hope that he finds his peace.” pic.twitter.com/pNGMPBOQTs
— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) November 7, 2025
The Cowboys entered Week 1 having more of an edge rushing rotation with Kneeland, Williams, Dante Fowler, rookie Donovan Ezeiruaku and James Houston.
Kneeland had a strong start to the season while playing 30 defensive snaps in the season opener in Philadelphia. He had a key third-quarter sack, the first of his career.
“He’s the same guy every day,” Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said after that game. “The guy that the world saw run around on that football field and play physical and get the sack and chase things down, he’s the same guy each and every day. And that consistency is what jumps off the film even at someone like myself, who is around him every day. And now the league knows. The league knows how talented this young man is.”
Injuries popped up again. An ankle injury, often limiting Kneeland in practice, kept him out of games against the Jets (Week 5) and Commanders (Week 7). The ankle injury appeared to be improving heading into Dallas’ Week 8 game at Denver, as Kneeland was a full participant in practice the Friday before the game. He was then a full participant throughout the entire week leading into last Monday night’s game against the Cardinals. His playing time had dropped though. The addition of veteran pass rusher Jadeveon Clowney impacted his playing time. Clowney and Ezeiruaku continued to ascend to a place where they got the bulk of the edge rushing work Monday night. Ezeiruaku played 51 defensive snaps, Clowney 38 and Williams 24. Houston and Kneeland each played a season-low 17 defensive snaps.
He was, though, on the field for three special-teams snaps against Arizona. One of them was Williams’ blocked punt, which Kneeland recovered in the end zone for his first career touchdown.
Cowboys defensive lineman Solomon Thomas, who co-founded The Defensive Line to raise awareness about suicide prevention, shared an emotional message honoring Kneeland on Instagram on Friday. “Brother Marshawn, I love you. I wish you knew it was going to be okay. I wish you knew the pain wouldn’t last and how loved you are. I wish you knew how bad we wanted you to stay.
“My heart breaks for you and your loved ones. We will lift your spirit up everyday.”