{"id":46004,"date":"2025-05-04T03:28:01","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T03:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=46004"},"modified":"2025-05-04T03:28:01","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T03:28:01","slug":"breaking-cowboys-sign-highlight-catch-1000-yard-wr-to-udfa-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=46004","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: Cowboys Sign \u2018Highlight Catch\u2019 1,000-Yard WR to UDFA Contract.."},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\" class=\"wp-caption \">\n<div class=\"h-responsive\">\n<figure class=\"h-responsive__inner\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2187602481-e1746270021370.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2187602481-e1746270021370.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2187602481-e1746270021370.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2187602481-e1746270021370.jpg?quality=35&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Josh Kelly\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" data-img-load-time=\"127\" data-dom-ready-time=\"192\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"caption-credit\">Getty<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"c-post-image-caption-text\">Texas Tech wide receiver Josh Kelly.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The\u00a0Dallas Cowboys\u00a0didn\u2019t use any of their 9 picks in the 2025 NFL draft on wide receivers. That doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re not still going to try and find some more talent at the position,\u00a0one way or another.<\/p>\n<p>Pro Football Talk\u2019s Josh Alper\u00a0reported the Cowboys signed a pair of college standout wide receivers as undrafted free agents on May 2.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe team announced on Friday that they have signed Traeshon Holden and Josh Kelly to their 90-man roster,\u201d Alper wrote. \u201cThe Cowboys are holding their rookie minicamp this weekend. Holden had 45 catches for 718 yards and five touchdowns while at Oregon last season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kelly is coming off a\u00a01,000-yard receiving season at Texas Tech\u00a0in 2024 and earned All-Big 12 honors before watching his draft stock tank after an underwhelming performance at the NFL scouting combine.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Kelly Teamed Up With No. 1 Overall Pick at Wazzu<\/h2>\n<p>Kelly, a Fresno, California, native, spent his first 4 seasons of college football at Fresno State and was an All-Mountain West Conference pick in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>He transferred to Washington State for the 2023 season, where he had 61 receptions for 923 yards and 8 touchdowns while catching passes from quarterback\u00a0Cam Ward, who was selected by the\u00a0Tennessee Titans\u00a0with the No. 1 overall pick in the\u00a02025 NFL draft.<\/p>\n<p>Both Ward and Kelly both left Washington State after the 2023 season after the Cougars found themselves without a conference after the Pac-12 disbanded. Ward landed at Miami, where he threw for 4,313 yards, 39 touchdowns and 4 interceptions while Kelly landed at Texas Tech.<\/p>\n<p>Kelly found himself in a strange situation in Lubbock with the highest-rated recruit in program history on the roster with freshman Micah Hudson. Considered on the same level as players like Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith and Alabama wide receiver Ryan Williams headed into the season, Hudson finished with just 8 receptions for 123 yards and no touchdowns, transferred to Texas A&amp;M then\u00a0transferred back to Texas Tech in a bizarre move.<\/p>\n<p>Kelly responded by leading the team with 89 receptions for 1,023 yards and 5 touchdowns.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Disastrous Showing for Kelly at NFL Combine<\/h2>\n<p>Kelly\u2019s draft stock went in the tank following a disastrous showing at the NFL scouting combine in February, where he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.70 seconds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKelly has experience playing inside and outside, but the lack of vertical speed he showed on tape popped up again at the NFL Scouting Combine when he ran a 4.70 40-yard dash,\u201d\u00a0NFL draft analyst Lance Zierlein wrote. \u201cKelly put a few highlight catches on tape. However, he lacks separation quickness to lose man coverage and figures to see a higher percentage of contested looks as a pro.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3\">\u201cWas a big play WR at\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3 r-b88u0q\">Tech<\/span><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3\">, wondered a few times watching him play if he\u2019d get signed,\u201d Cowboys fan and\u00a0X user @Kelly_K_9\u00a0wrote. \u201cWith how thin our talent is at WR, anythings possible for this kid! Love the long shots!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Holden spent 3 seasons at Alabama before transferring to Oregon for his final 2 seasons, where an off-field incident overshadowed his time there.<\/p>\n<p>Holden was arrested on felony weapons charges less than a month after he transferred to Oregon in January 2023 and dismissed from the team before being reinstated by head coach Dan Lanning one month later\u00a0after the charges were dropped.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Getty Texas Tech wide receiver Josh Kelly. The\u00a0Dallas Cowboys\u00a0didn\u2019t use any of their 9 picks in the 2025 NFL draft on wide receivers. That doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>BREAKING: Cowboys Sign \u2018Highlight Catch\u2019 1,000-Yard WR to UDFA Contract.. - 24\/7 News America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=46004\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING: Cowboys Sign \u2018Highlight Catch\u2019 1,000-Yard WR to UDFA Contract.. - 24\/7 News America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Getty Texas Tech wide receiver Josh Kelly. 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