Brewers Minor League OF Dylan Cozens To Pursue NFL Career

In a bit of unexpected news, the Brewers are losing one of their minor league players, utilityman Dylan Cozens, to… the NFL.

Cozens, 27, announced his plans on Twitter on Tuesday.

It’s quite the career change for Cozens, but his baseball career has not gone as planned.

Cozens does have big league experience, 27 games across 2018 and 2019 with the Phillies. He had 39 at-bats, 24 ending in strikeouts, and a .154 career average. The Brewers signed Cozens to a minor league deal this past offseason.

After getting some time in big league camp this spring training, Cozens was sent out to Triple-A Nashville. In 100 plate appearances, Cozens hit just .177 with two home runs and 43 strikeouts. That’s…not good.

Cozens had been playing right field mostly, as a power corner bat. There wasn’t really a path to the big leagues for him in the outfield with the Brewers, and especially not with the way he was hitting.

So Cozens has decided to make a career change, and take his talents to the NFL. It’s not as odd of a career change that we may initially think.

Cozens was a big time football recruit back in high school as a defensive lineman. The Brewers have Cozens listed at 6’6″ and 245 pounds, so he’s got good height for the NFL, but if he’s going back to the defensive line, he’s going to need to put on a few more pounds.

He has four stolen bases this year, so Cozens has some speed. Perhaps he could be a linebacker.

Cozens didn’t state if he had a tryout with any team or where he might be going, but he’s going to try to make it in the NFL.

We know Cozens is big and strong, based on some booming home runs he’s hit, and he has prior experience playing football at a big-time high school and was a high level recruit. He’s going to be quite raw as a football player, but he’s a great athlete and anything can happen.

Best of luck to Cozens as he chases his football dream. Hopefully everything works out well for him.