Dallas, TX
Cowboys tight end roster review: Jake Ferguson’s rise makes Dallas’ job easy this offseason
The 2024 offseason comes with many question marks for the Dallas Cowboys roster, but the tight end position is one they won’t need to worry over. Thanks to Jake Ferguson’s ascension as the starter and young depth under contract, TE is one of the team’s strengths as it prepares for its next campaign.
Ferguson’s excellent first year as TE1 was just capped with being named a Pro Bowl alternate. Just two seasons in, the former fourth-round pick has already made us forget Dalton Schultz and looks like the best to man the position since Jason Witten. He’s also one of the team’s best bargains on a Day 3 rookie contract; even a likely bump in pay from performance escalators won’t change that.
You almost have to feel bad for Luke Schoonmaker, who didn’t ask to be drafted in the second round or by a team that already had its guy. He’ll have a hard time justifying the draft position in Ferguson’s shadow, but the front office deserves the criticism there. At the very least, Schoonmaker is a talented backup who’s also provided solid work as a run blocker. His offensive role could expand in his second season and allow Dallas to exploit matchup problems.
TEs Under Contract for 2024
- Jake Ferguson – $1.16m cap hit
- Luke Schoonmaker – $1.42m cap hit
- Peyton Hendershot- $990k cap hit
- John Stephens – $916k cap hit
- Princeton Fant – $795k cap hit
Even beyond the top two, things are pretty solid overall. Peyton Hendershot has proven effective when targeted and a good runner after the catch. We’re also intrigued to see if John Stephens Jr., a TE/WR hybrid, can come back from a preseason ACL tear and build on the strong receiving work he showed last year. Prospect Princeton Fant, an undrafted free agent last year, is also back after spending 2023 on the practice squad.
One thing we can almost guarantee this spring is that Dallas won’t be making any big moves at tight end. Their top two are set and they could ride with the current depth. At most, we’ll probably see them add a few camp bodies from this year’s UDFA crop or maybe a very late-round pick for a player they really like.
If the Cowboys were to make any move in free agency, it might be to re-sign Sean McKeon for experienced depth or bring in someone with more proven blocking ability. That is the one issue with Hendershot and Stephens as depth options, which could be a factor as improving the run will be an offseason focus for the team.
Whatever minor tweaks come, Jake Ferguson and Luke Schoonmaker make life relatively easy for Dallas’ front office this offseason. The Cowboys can direct attention and resources elsewhere on the roster, confident in what they’ve already established at the top of the TE depth chart.
Dallas, TX
Dallas Weather: Thunderstorms in the forecast for Friday & Mother’s Day
DALLAS – Thunderstorms will roll through parts of North Texas on Friday. Thankfully, none should be severe. Mother’s Day could be a different story.
Friday Forecast
According to FOX 4 Weather Meteorologist Berkeley Taylor, a cluster of thunderstorms will work their way east across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex on Friday morning.
Everything is well below severe limits, just with lots of lightning!
Scattered showers and thunderstorms will move in and out through the day on Friday. Coverage is about 20%.
An isolated strong storm or two can’t be ruled out, but the overall threat is low.
Temperatures will be in the 50s and 60s for the morning, before climbing into the 80s by the afternoon.
Weekend Forecast
Saturday will look similar, with even lower coverage expected.
Sunday presents the best chance to find rain and storms – about 50% as a cold front moves through North Texas.
North Texas is under a Level 2 out of 5 risk for severe weather. The biggest concerns will be with wind and hail.
Timing-wise, the front looks to move through in the afternoon/evening.
7-Day Forecast
Once the front is south of North Texas on Mother’s Day, the rain should come to an end, and it will stay dry into next week.
Temperatures will start to warm into the upper 80s and low 90s by midweek next week.
The Source: The information in this story is from the FOX 4 Weather team and National Weather Service.
Dallas, TX
Dallas deck park set to reconnect Oak Cliff after decades of division
Dallas, TX
Cowboys’ Stephen Jones says what NFL won’t admit about the Micah Parsons trade
It hasn’t even been a year since the blockbuster Micah Parsons trade, but the Dallas Cowboys have officially and completely moved on.
Although in many ways, the 2025 season feels like it was wasted with how good the Cowboys’ offense was, the decision to trade Parsons to the Green Bay Packers was pretty simple in principle: Dallas did not believe one great player was worth four or five good players. And that is a sentiment that has been repeated to an almost political degree from the Cowboys’ brain trust.
Cowboys EVP and CEO Stephen Jones recently reiterated the Dallas’ internal pleasure over how the Parsons trade has played out, and he essentially said what everyone in the NFL refuses to say: The Cowboys might have actually made the right call.
Stephen Jones likes how Dallas Cowboys have reloaded the defense after Micah Parsons trade
Here’s what Jones had to say (via NFL.com) regarding his thoughts on the trade now that the pieces are pretty much all in place:
“We feel really good about it. Obviously, much respect for Micah and what he stands for and how he plays and the caliber of player he is, but at the same time we feel good about what we’ve added via that trade.
You look at a guy like Quinnen Williams and Kenny Clark, they’re alpha players who not only are great players on the field, but they’re leaders in the meeting room. How they go about their business in the offseason, [they] just bring great leadership to this team. As we mentioned, we add a guy like Caleb Downs, who is obviously the same type of character…
I just feel very optimistic that we have the right pieces in place to go out there. Ultimately, the decision we made was that one player was not worth four or five good ones.”
There is really a lot going on with what Jones says right here that will perk up a lot of ears and eyebrows.
Of course, the general sentiment seems to be that the Cowboys are pleased with the way they’ve utilized the assets they got in that trade from the Packers. The acquisition of defensive lineman Quinnen Williams gives Dallas an absolute stud in the middle, but having Kenny Clark next to him is a really underrated piece as well.
The trade back in the first round of this year’s draft with Green Bay’s selection landed the Cowboys Malachi Lawrence, Devin Moore, and LT Overton. There’s still the matter of which pick will go to the Jets next year from the Williams trade, but it will be whichever of Dallas’ and Green Bay’s pick is higher.
You can also tell that the personal makeup of the players they’ve added was important for Dallas in this process, and while Jones stops short of taking a dig at Parsons in that regard, you can hear what he’s saying pretty loud and clear when he talks about guys being “alpha” players on the field as well as leaders in the meeting room. Message sent.
The thing nobody in the NFL really wants to admit is that the Cowboys did the right thing by trading Parsons when and how they did. And while you can debate whether they truly got great value, it’s hard to argue with the idea that one player is worth four or five, especially when that one player would be taking up the same slice of the pie as most quarterbacks around the NFL.
It’s not that you can’t make it work, but in Dallas’ context, they felt like that investment in Parsons was a signal that they were “one player away”, and it’s hard to argue with their self-awareness that they simply weren’t in that position a year ago.
Although the cost was moving on from a true superstar off the edge like Micah Parsons, it’s a trade that has helped Dallas reload a huge portion of their starting defense, including adding three quality players on the defensive front, maybe more.
Most people hated the Parsons trade just on principle. How can you trade a defensive superstar still with his prime years ahead of him? Doesn’t it send a bad message to other players who earn big-money contracts? Ultimately, the Cowboys drew a proverbial line in the sand, and that’s part of the business of the NFL.
They still have to hope that all of the new additions work out, but on paper, it’s hard to argue with what the Cowboys were able to assemble rather quickly because of this trade.
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