Malik McDowell hasn't played a football game since the 2016 season at Michigan State.
He was a second-round draft pick of the Seahawks in 2017, but his NFL career never got started thanks to an ATV accident that summer that left McDowell with facial fractures and a concussion.
The defensive lineman spent the 2017 season on the non-football injury list and the 2018 season on injured reserve, unable to gain clearance from the Seahawks team doctors. Seattle waived him earlier this month, and he's now a free agent.
McDowell has since been cleared to play, according to his agent, Drew Rosenhaus. And he's hoping to sign with Cowboys, who brought him in for a visit last week.
"I don't think (the Seahawks) were comfortable with the medical side of it," Rosenhaus said Monday at the NFL owners meetings, via the Seattle Times. "I think he is going to have to play for somebody else. …
"He has doctors who have cleared him independently, so we are in the process of meeting with teams. He went to visit the Cowboys last week. We are trying to get that done."
McDowell signed a four-year, $6.95 million contract, including a $3.2 million signing bonus, with the Seahawks in 2017 after the team traded out of the first round and drafted him No. 35 overall. Per Spotrac.com, he collected just over $4 million of that deal before being waived.
He will be the highest-drafted player in Seahawks history to never play for the team, per the Seattle Times.
McDowell spent three seasons at Michigan State, including 2015 when the team made the College Football Playoff. He was second-team All-Big Ten in 2016 when he led the team in tackles for loss.
