He plays like a seventh-round pick who thought he should've gone much higher in the draft. He plays like a guy who has been overlooked his entire football career.

He plays like someone who has been forced to switch positions several times, even moving from offense to defense.

He plays like a guy not just hungry, but starving for respect.

Add it all up and he plays like a guy who is often mad at the world.

But even into his fourth NFL season, something seems to be working for Jay Ratliff. Actually, a lot of things are working for Ratliff these days.

He is supposed to be an undersized defensive tackle, who moved from end last year. However, through three games, Ratliff is rivaling All-Pro linebacker DeMarcus Ware as the Cowboys' most productive defensive player.

Playing a position that doesn't usually garner many individual stats, Ratliff leads the team in quarterback pressures with nine, compared to Ware's six. Ratliff has 18 tackles and two sacks.

If you think those numbers are low. Just go back to last season when Ratliff had 28 tackles, three sacks and 15 pressures . . . in 15 games.

And that was considered a great season, too. But this year, Ratliff has been even better in the middle.

Call it playing with determination, pride or with a chip on his shoulder, Jay Ratliff is simply playing. Actually, Ratliff's teammate and one of his closest friends Chris Canty says it better.

"Jay is ballin' out there."

He's not the only one noticing.

The Cowboys knew it last year, when they gave him a five-year, $20 million contract that not only prevented him from becoming a free agent this off-season, but probably keeps him from flying under the radar anymore.

But that doesn't stop Ratliff from trying.

"Ever since high school, I don't do that. I don't pat myself on the back about anything," he said. "I firmly believe if you look back, thinking 'I did this or I did that,' then you start getting complacent. My mission is to stay hungry."

And to Ratliff, staying hungry means staying focused. As a result, it means being rather quiet, too. He's not a big talker, at least not to the media. But even to his teammates, Ratliff isn't what you would call a "rah-rah guy."
 

But he's a leader, definitely by example.

"He's not a man of a lot of words. He's an action guy," said Cowboys strength and conditioning coach Joe Juraszek. "He takes care of business. He works hard. 'Chip on his shoulder' has a negative connotation. He's got a lot of pride and he wanted to succeed at football at this level. He believed he could. He did everything he could in his abilities to do it, and he has."

Juraszek said he often has to convince younger players how important the workout programs can be to not only improving, but prolonging a career.
 

But with Ratliff, it wasn't just an easy sell. After watching three Auburn teammates - Ronnie Brown, Cadillac Williams and Jason Campbell - get drafted in the first round of 2005, Ratliff lasted until the seventh round, when he was the 224th player selected.

Not only did Ratliff know how to work out, but after getting passed over seven rounds, he came to the Cowboys ready to work, too.

"He came from a program where their players worked hard," Juraszek said. "Personally, he has a great work ethic. It would be hard to match his work ethic, how he attacks everything he does - mentally, physically on the field and it's indicative how he plays. All of those attributes help Jay succeed at this level. He also helps his teammates because it's infections. The D-line gets his energy. Our whole team does, because he'll get our O-line fired up. He brings a motor to our team that is completely needed."

And that is definitely a two-way street.

Ratliff has developed a close bond with his teammates, none more so than with his defensive line buddies in Canty, Marcus Spears, Jason Hatcher and Stephen Bowen.

"I'll be honest with you. Besides my family, that's who I go to work for," Ratliff said, pointing to the locker room, particularly the row of stalls that includes his best friends on the team. "These guys, I came in with them. I've bled, sweated with them. There is definitely some camaraderie there. Canty, Spears, Bowen, Jason Hatcher, we're like one big family."

Apparently, he's always been like that.

The very guy Ratliff will be chasing around Sunday at Texas Stadium was his college quarterback at Auburn. And Campbell said he is not surprised at all in the way Ratliff's career has turned out.

"He has the right attitude. Jay was always a hard worker," said Campbell, who is in his second season as the Redskins starter. "When he first got to Auburn, we had him at tight end. Then, he eventually went to defensive end. What he's doing right now is not a surprise because I know how hard he worked in college. He was one of our leaders. He's a team-guy. Everything that is happening for him is happening for good reason."

Campbell recalled Ratliff as quiet away from the field, but a high-energy guy that jokes a lot in practice, but gets the job done.

Not much has really changed.

"Absolutely. This is business. I come here, it's football," Ratliff said. "It's all about being aggressive when you're on the field. At home, or when I'm away from the facility, I'm nothing like this."

But there's obviously no reason to change his approach. Ratliff has immediately turned heads since the day he arrived to the team in 2005.

And standing out wasn't easy to do, not just because he was a rookie, but a rookie in a high-profile draft class, that included first-round picks Ware and Marcus Spears, second-round pick Kevin Burnett and fourth-rounders Canty and Marion Barber.

But Ratliff still found his way on the team, and onto the field.

In four games as a rookie, Ratliff had a sack and five tackles, playing only on passing downs. But his first season ended early when he suffered a high-ankle sprain, an injury that Juraszek called a blessing in disguise.

"I've said it before, but Jay having that high ankle sprain, was the best thing that happened to him," Juraszek said. "We got about four months to train, and we worked on getting bigger. He took that to his position. That part when he was hurt really helped him physically. It was hard on him mentally because he wanted to be on the field. But, it helped him the most to transition from that defensive end spot to nose guard when he got a little bigger."

He came back in 2006 to play in 15 games as a reserve lineman, posting four sacks.

And he was primed to be a reserve defensive end before the 2007 season when starting nose tackle Jason Ferguson went down in the first game with a torn biceps injury.

During the off-season, training camp and preseason, Wade Phillips downplayed the need for a backup behind Ferguson, touting Ratliff has a capable replacement.

But when Ferguson's injury forced the issue, Ratliff shined.

And the nose tackle position is a vital piece to Phillips' defense. In the past, he's used enormous tackles such as Ted Washington in Buffalo and Jamal Williams in San Diego. But a player such as Greg Kragen in Denver was built more like Ratliff.

Phillips takes pride in the fact that he can fit the defense around his players, rather than the other way around.

Still, he said Ratliff might be producing at a higher level than all of them, especially when it comes to getting after the quarterback.

"He gets as much rush from the nose guard position as any guy I've ever had," Phillips said. "Usually that guy is doubled and he beats a double-team once for a sack. He's relentless. He's really a good player."

Phillips has known that for a while. The rest of the league is starting to find out, too.

But for Ratliff, he'll probably never admit it. And that's what will keep him hungry. And maybe a little mad, too.