FRISCO -- You can count on Daniel Ross busting a move to begin each Cowboys practice.

As players span the field for warm-up stretches, Ross assumes his spot at the front of the pack among the defensive linemen. Most players just go through the motions. But Ross bounces along to whatever rap song blasts from the loudspeakers. When the beat drops, he does too.

Ross, a 25-year-old defensive tackle signed by Dallas at the end of 2017, admits he's always been a big dancer. He enjoys even the most mundane of moments at The Star. He has good reason to.

From 2012-17, Ross bounced from junior college to the CFL, followed by three NFL teams in six months. Then the Cowboys took a chance on him last fall.

So for him to be where he is now -- not only on the Cowboys' active roster but also one of their most pleasant surprises on the defense five games into the season?

"It's breathtaking," Ross said.

Granny's impact

Ross grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and from age 3 was raised by his grandmother, or “Granny,” as he still calls her. Ross loved listening to Granny sing and watching her cook. His favorite moments were their car rides, when she'd instill some wisdom in Ross -- including never to touch Granny's radio.

Ross' first love was basketball, and at one point in high school, he was ranked the No. 2 power forward in Kentucky. But after Ross picked up football his sophomore year, he began to realize that his size and athleticism were particularly well-suited for the gridiron. As he put it, "basketball was not my calling; football was."

Along the way, his grandmother, his No. 1 fan, kept telling him to dream big. Maybe one day she'd see him on the big screen, she said.

She never saw her grandson's dreams unfold. Granny passed away when Ross was still a teenager -- before she had a chance to see him play on Saturdays and, against the odds, on Sundays.

After high school, Ross played two years at a junior college, Northeast Mississippi Community College, before jumping straight into the Canadian Football League in 2014.

A knee injury hampered Ross’ progression early on, and his time with teams in Edmonton and Saskatchewan comprised appearances in mini-camps and on practice squads. In the entirety of his CFL career, he played only a single game, with Saskatchewan.

Ross started to wonder whether it was all worth it.

"I had many conversations with my wife just thinking about, 'Should I give it up? Should I just go find a job?"

The return

So he worked at Champs and did landscaping work, shoveling snow and even training to be an electrician, all to make ends meet.

But with Granny's advice in mind, Ross finally got his big break in May 2017, when the Houston Texans signed him as an undrafted free agent. Still, the Texans cut him before bringing him back onto the practice squad and then waiving him a week later. He had brief stints in Detroit and Kansas City before the Cowboys signed him in November.

Ross played for the Cowboys in the final three games of the 2017 season but says the opportunity didn't really set in until this fall. Unlike what he had experienced so many times before, he didn't get "the call" telling him that he'd been cut or that he didn't make the final 53-man roster.

Ross has since shown he belongs, proving himself as a valuable part of a rotation that's battled injuries and the absence of David Irving.

"He's a talented guy," Cowboys defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli said. "He just keeps learning... He comes out and he's been getting some good looks [in games] and he did a nice job for us."

And he’s doing it in his first stretch of consistent playing time since his junior college days five years ago, raising eyebrows despite playing just 28.4 percent of Dallas' defensive snaps through five games.

"I got a small window to make the spotlight," Ross said. "That's why when I get in there, I take every [expletive] chance I get to make a big play or a big impact in the game."

Forcing a fumble against Carolina inside the Cowboys' 5-yard line Week 1 was a good start.

And again last week, he powered through Houston's offensive line to record a team-high five quarterback hits -- on only 16 snaps.

Ross says he feels his play so far has opened the eyes of the coaching staff. But he's not preoccupied with trying to impress them. Because every time he walks the halls of his family's new condo, every time he brings out his dance moves during practice, every time he takes a snap in a NFL game, he's still just taking it all in, including what it means to wear that star on his helmet.

He knows Granny would be proud.

"Now she's watching me,” Ross said, “from the biggest screen ever.”

On Twitter: @alexaphilippou