For many people, gaining weight isn’t a particularly difficult thing to achieve.
Cowboys defensive end Randy Gregory is not one of those people. Gregory’s slight frame for his position was a concern of NFL teams before Gregory’s admitted marijuana use helped push him into the second round of the draft after a productive college career at Nebraska. Gregory played at 235-240 pounds throughout his college career and told Jason Cole of Bleacher Report that he wants to weigh at least 250 pounds this season.
Right now, Gregory says he’s about 243 pounds and gaining the rest of the weight is made more difficult because he can “can lose two pounds breathing air right now.” If he isn’t able to reach the desired weight, Gregory offers a reminder that he played well in college despite the missing girth.
“I think I actually did OK playing at the weight that I played at in college,” Gregory said. “I was 235, 240 pretty much my whole college career. I’ve heard people say that I played bigger than my actual weight. I think if people actually sit down and watch game film, they’ll see that I don’t actually get pushed around as much as people say I do. I think people just assume, ‘He has a light body. He’s a pass rusher. He must not be a good run defender.’ But I think if you ask anybody on the staff, Coach [Rod] Marinelli or anybody else, they’ll tell you I’m doing a good job setting the edge and added weight is only going to help me. So I’m planning to add more.”
Cole brought up Jason Taylor as an example of a player who was able to thrive in the NFL without overwhelming bulk, but there are also examples like Aaron Maybin of highly regarded college players whose less-than-ideal size hurt them at the professional level. A career like Taylor’s is a lot to ask of any player, but the Cowboys are hoping Gregory can fall somewhere closer to him on the spectrum.
