Cowboys sign veteran center Billy Price to practice squad

With some of their offensive linemen dealing with various injuries, the Dallas Cowboys just brought in some outside help to bolster their O-line depth.

According to NFL insider Tom Pelissero, Dallas inked former Bengals first round pick Billy Price to their practice squad. Here was his tweet from Wednesday morning that had the news:

“With injuries mounting up front, the #Cowboys signed veteran center Billy Price to the practice squad. A onetime first-round pick.”

Price was a superstar up front at the college level for Ohio State and had his best season with the Buckeyes in 2017, where he starred as the team’s starting center and the ringleader of a terrific OL unit for OSU. He went on to earn Consensus All-America honors for his play in ’17 and even won the Dave Rimington Trophy, which is annually awarded to the best center in college football.

Given his pedigree at the college level and the fact he attended nearby Ohio State, Price was selected by the Cincinnati Bengals in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft at pick No. 21. Price started the first few games as a rookie, then became the Bengals’ sixth straight first round pick to suffer a significant injury in their first year with the team, forced to miss six games with a foot problem.

However, he returned to start at center in the final half of a rather unsuccessful season for Cincinnati. He again started roughly half the team’s games again in 2019 but was relegated to a reserve role in Joe Burrow’s first season in 2020. After failing to establish himself as a starter across three seasons, Cincy dealt him away to the Giants in a steal of a trade to acquire defensive lineman BJ Hill, who went on to have a career year with the Bengals in ’21 as a big piece of their defensive line in the team’s Super Bowl run.

Price spent ’21 as the starting center for the New York Giants but was not signed after that season once his rookie contract ran out. He landed with the Raiders to begin the ’22 season but never saw the field. After a couple of weeks, he moved again, this time to Arizona, where he caught on as their starter at center from Week 7 through the end of the year. Again, though, he was not resigned by the team and entered this fall a free agent.

Now, the former first rounder has another new home in Dallas.