Among the many concerns people had about Randy Gregory before the draft, one was that he was too light.
Slowly but surely, he’s working on that one.
The rookie pass-rusher raised some doubts when he weighed in at 235 pounds at the combine, but said he’s up to 243 now, roughly halfway to where the Cowboys want him to be (the 250s).
“I was surprisingly light when I got here,” Gregory said, via Charean Williams of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “I’ve gained a lot since I got here, surprisingly with the amount of running we do out there.
“We’ve still got time. I’m just slowly gaining weight as I go. I know the coaches are happy about it. I’m happy about it obviously. It’s going to help my game out. It hadn’t hurt my game at all as far as my conditioning and like that. That’s just another aspect of my game I’ve got to work on.”
There are plenty of those, as he admits getting worked over in practice by left tackle Tyron Smith on a regular basis. But Smith does that to a lot of people, so Gregory is trying to use it as motivation.
“That’s probably the only thing that keeps me going,” Gregory said. “I was saying that in my head last night. As much as he beats me every day, hopefully the game will be a lot easier. Usually it is if you do the right things in practice, go hard in practice, work on little details in practice, then the games usually come easier. . . .
“He’s a real big guy, and he’s got good feet for his size, good hips for his size, so it’s hard to get by a guy like that. I do what I can. But he’s one of the best tackles in the league, so there’s only so much you can do.”
It might be easier if Gregory weren’t narrow in the seat, but at his current size, he runs the risk of being swallowed up by tackles who aren’t necessarily in Smith’s class.
