Although the 2023 NFL Draft came and went without a Temple player being selected, three former Owls will at the very least get the opportunity to prove themselves with pro teams in the coming weeks.

Jose Barbon, Temple’s leading receiver in 2022, signed late Saturday night as an undrafted rookie free agent with the Dallas Cowboys, while offensive lineman Isaac Moore and defensive lineman Xach Gill received rookie camp invites with the Green Bay Packers and New York Giants, respectively. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Cayden Steele was the first to report the news of Barbon’s signing.

Barbon said he was in Lancaster with his family Saturday night when he got the call with the good news from his agent.

“They were so happy,” Barbon told OwlScoop.com Sunday morning. “They’ve seen me play this game since I was in sixth grade. So them just seeing me have my dream come true, they were so happy.”

After catching just 26 passes in his first two seasons at Temple, Barbon’s production took off in his final two years with the Owls. The 6-foot, 185-pound Lancaster native and Conestoga Valley High School graduate posted career-high totals of 72 catches for 918 yards this past season, to go along with two touchdowns. In Temple’s regular-season finale, a 49-46 shootout loss to ECU, Barbon caught 13 passes for 160 yards, both of which were single-game career highs.

Barbon was a true freshman in 2018 when Ventell Bryant was a redshirt senior who went on to catch 51 passes for 690 yards and three touchdowns and become the program’s all-time leader in receptions and receiving yards. Bryant initially earned a rookie minicamp invite with the Cincinnati Bengals and played well enough to sign as an undrafted rookie free agent contract with the organization. The Cowboys later signed Bryant to their practice squad in early September of 2019 and promoted him to their active roster a month later. Bryant recorded the first and only catch of his NFL career, a 15-yard touchdown pass from Dak Prescott, on Thanksgiving Day that season.

Barbon said he talked to Bryant Saturday night and described him as a former Temple player he looks up to. The advice he’s received from Bryant and other former Owls who have gone on to play in the NFL has remained the same:

“They just tell me to stay focused and locked in,” Barbon said. “Don’t let the moment get too big, and get close to the coaches.”

Moore, a 6-7, 300-pound native of Oreboro, Sweden, started all 12 games at left tackle for Temple in a 2022 season season where injuries prevented first-year head coach Stan Drayton and offensive line coach Chris Wiesehan from starting the same lineup in consecutive weeks. Moore was selected by the Philadelphia Stars with the sixth pick of the third round in February’s USFL draft and could return to the league to play, he said.

For now, Moore said he is set to fly to Green Bay Thursday and start the rookie minicamp with the Packers Friday and take his best shot from there.

“I didn’t care where, I just wanted a shot,” Moore told OwlScoop.com Sunday morning. “And now, luckily, the Packers gave me my shot. So I’m just going to make it impossible for them to fire me.

Moore, who signed with Temple through the PPI recruiting service prior to the 2018 season, never missed a game throughout his college career and went on to become a five-time letterwinner, a single digit this past season, and cap off a program record for consecutive games played with 57.

Now he’s grateful for the opportunity to extend his employment visa in the United States and take a shot at playing the game he loves at the highest level.

“All the nervousness is just excitement at this point,” Moore said. “I’ve been wanting a shot for so long. Now I’m just going to go out there and do my absolute best. And if that’s good enough, then that’s good enough. And if it’s not good enough, then I’ll know I tried my absolute best.”

Gill was a rotational defensive lineman and team captain for the Owls in 2022 and logged 24 tackles in 12 games. Rivals rated Gill as the 18th-best defensive tackle in the 2018 class at a time when he fielded offers from programs like Penn State, Pitt, Miami and North Carolina State before signing with North Carolina. He spent his first three seasons with the Tar Heels before coming to Temple via the transfer portal prior to the 2021 season.

Adonicas Sanders gets Colts rookie minicamp invite

Early Sunday afternoon, Temple announced that former Owls wide receiver Adonicas Sanders had received a rookie camp invitation from the Indianapolis Colts.

Sanders, a Georgia Tech transfer who earned a single digit r, caught 37 passes for 437 yards and two touchdowns in his lone season with the Owls and missed three games due to injury.