Tag: Brevyn Spann-Ford

Is Jake Ferguson playing today? Injury news update for Cowboys tight end

Here’s the latest status for the Cowboys’ Jake Ferguson for Week 14 against the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Dallas Cowboys have been suffering from the injury bug all season, and there hasn’t been a position group that has been safe. Just when the passing offense was finally getting WR2 Brandin Cooks back, they lost a different key member of the receiving corps.

TE Jake Ferguson has been sidelined the last two weeks with concussion symptoms. He opened up about the severity recently, citing that his mental state was so impacted he once broke out in a crying fit over the simple inconvenience of being unable to locate his mobile phone. With that level of severity, there’s a question on whether or not he’d be ready to face the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 14.

Fortunately, the answer is yes. Ferguson practiced all week and with no setbacks, he will suit up for the Cowboys on Monday Night Football. The two games he missed were on short weeks; he was injured in a Monday night game against Houston, and then missed the Washington game six days later which was followed by the Giants game just four days after that.

In his absence Dallas turned to second-year, second-round pick Luke Schoonmaker, along with 2024 UDFA Brevyn Spann-Ford. The team has also added Princeton Fant to the roster, signed from their own practice squad. It is assumed with Ferguson active again, Fant will be among the inactive on Monday.

This Cowboys UDFA rookie making case to be featured in long-term plans

Brevyn Spann-Ford is the Cowboys’ best blocking TE who has the potential to be elite in the future, finds @ReidDHanson.

The Dallas Cowboys are masters in finding steals through nontraditional avenues. From Brandin Aubrey and KaVontae Turpin who were found in other professional leagues, to Dak Prescott and DaRon Bland who were found in the latter portions of the draft, to Tony Romo and Miles Austin who were signed as undrafted free agents, the Cowboys have a knack for finding treasure in the rarest of places.

When Dallas signed undrafted tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford following the draft last spring, they were hoping they found their next big treasure. Standing almost 6-foot-7, 270-pounds, “big” might be an understatement.

The rookie from Minnesota was in demand following the draft. Players his size don’t come around very often and to many scouts, Spann-Ford had a draftable grade. What transpired was a bidding war, with team pit against team in an auction the Cowboys are all too familiar with. As fate would have it, Dallas won, outbidding the competition by guaranteeing $225,000 and throwing in a signing bonus of another $20,000 for good measure.

The sizable deal came with sizable expectations. In order to justify the costs, Spann-Ford would need to make the roster out of training camp, and he’d have to contribute in some way on game day. On a unit led by Pro Bowler Jake Ferguson and backed up former second rounder Luke Schoonmaker, getting snaps wasn’t going to be easy for the 24-year-old rookie.

12 games into his professional career Spann-Ford has found a way to be that contributor the Cowboys needed him to be. Not only has he logged 76 snaps on special teams, but he’s helped pick up the slack left by Ferguson’s injury absence on offense too. At 230 snaps and counting, Spann-Ford isn’t just craving out an offensive role in 2024 but he’s making the case for a bigger role in the future.

A blocking specialist by nature, Spann-Ford is already the Cowboys’ top-rated blocker at the TE position. Blessed with the size of a left tackle, Spann-Ford has the potential to develop into an elite blocker one day, possibly giving the Cowboys a mismatch player to design plays around.

Ferguson, reportedly close to coming back, will likely seize back his role as true TE1 the moment he’s cleared to play. And Schoonmaker, a player who has stepped up in Ferguson’s absence, will likely continue to be a player the Cowboys seek to develop. At face value this isn’t good news for Spann-Ford stockholders, but a deeper look shows Spann-Ford’s value and role remain intact.

As a blocker, Spann-Ford’s numbers and screen time are never going to jump out at people. But for the offensive line nuts who love nothing more than watching a well-executed run scheme play out, Spann-Ford is must-see-TV. Not perfect, but starting to flash dominant characteristics, the Cowboys newest UDFA is a player on the rise who still fits plenty of TE2 roles and responsibilities. There will likely be a rotation at the TE position the rest of the way this season and the two backups will both demand opportunities.

The Cowboys rarely use three TEs at the same time (1.3 percent) but that doesn’t mean three TEs won’t play each week. Spann-Ford is an exciting player who may be carving out a major role for the near future.

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Is Jake Ferguson playing today? Injury news update for Cowboys tight end

Here’s the latest status for the Cowboys’ Jake Ferguson for Week 13 against the New York Giants.

The Dallas Cowboys cannot seem to get out from under the injury bug. The club, already down their franchise quarterback Dak Prescott for the remainder of the year, has struggled to get their downfield targets involved. CeeDee Lamb was just coming out of his early season funk when Prescott was lost in Week 9. He wasn’t getting much help.

Brandin Cooks had just nine catches through four games when he was placed on IR with a knee injury. He’ll return to the lineup in Week 13 against New York, but how much will he be able to contribute? The scheme has been unable to make Kavontae Turpin a serious inclusion in the offense more often than not. The development of third-year wideout Jalen Tolbert, second-year man Jalen Brooks or rookie Ryan Flournoy has been slow. The one guy who was established, TE Jake Ferguson, seems to have regressed from his Pro Bowl 2023.

And a concussion suffered in Week 11 will force Ferguson to miss his second consecutive game when the Cowboys take on the Giants Thanksgiving afternoon.

The third-year man out of Wisconsin caught 71 targets for 761 yards and scored five touchdowns in 2023. He’s failed to reach the end zone so far in 2024, disappointing fantasy owners left and right.

In his wake, Dallas will tun to second-year, second-round pick Luke Schoonmaker, along with 2024 UDFA Brevyn Spann-Ford. Schoonmaker had his finest game as a pro Monday after Ferguson was lost; he’d been relegated to afterthought with Spann-Ford usurping his snaps. The team has also added Princeton Fant to the roster, signed from their own practice squad.

Is Jake Ferguson playing today? Injury news update for Cowboys tight end

Here’s the latest status for the Cowboys’ Jake Ferguson for Week 12 against the Washington Commanders.

The Dallas Cowboys are running out of targets. The club, already down their franchise quarterback Dak Prescott for the remainder of the year, has struggled to get their downfield targets involved. CeeDee Lamb was just coming out of his early season funk when Prescott was lost in Week 9. He wasn’t getting much help.

Brandin Cooks had just nine catches through four games when he was placed on IR with a knee injury. The scheme has been unable to make Kavontae Turpin a serious inclusion in the offense more often than not. The development of third-year wideout Jalen Tolbert, second-year man Jalen Brooks or rookie Ryan Flournoy has been slow. The one guy who was established, TE Jake Ferguson, seems to have regressed from his Pro Bowl 2023.

And this week against the Washington Commanders, they won’t even have him as a concussion suffered Monday night against Houston will sideline him for Week 12.

The third-year man out of Wisconsin caught 71 targets for 761 yards and scored five touchdowns in 2023. He’s failed to reach the end zone so far in 2024, disappointing fantasy owners left and right.

In his wake, Dallas will tun to second-year, second-round pick Luke Schoonmaker, along with 2024 UDFA Brevyn Spann-Ford. Schoonmaker had his finest game as a pro Monday after Ferguson was lost; he’d been relegated to afterthought with Spann-Ford usurping his snaps.

Schoonmaker saw a career high 10 targets and set a career high with 56 receiving yards in Week 11. Spann-Ford did the same with four catches for 42 yards.

Cowboys guarantee almost $250K to sign big-bodied undrafted TE prospect

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Cowboys had a draftable grade on Minnesota’s Brevyn Spann-Ford; when he wasn’t picked, they won the bidding war to claim him.

Mike McCarthy loves tight ends, and he seems to have a special affinity for tight ends from the the Big Ten conference.

The Cowboys went seven rounds this draft weekend without selecting a single tight end, but there was at least one they had their eye on. And once the final pick was in and teams started burning up the phone lines to sign the leftover prospects as undrafted free agents, Dallas put their money where their head coach’s mouth was to secure the newest addition to the TE room.

Minnesota’s Brevyn Spann-Ford got a $20,000 signing bonus and a sizable guarantee of $225,000 to sign with the Cowboys, according to reports, with the team winning a bidding war to get the 6-foot-6-inch 260-pounder.

For context, the Cowboys’ entire 13-man UDFA class last year got $573,000 in guaranteed money. That the team spent 39% of that amount on Spann-Ford alone, just topping what Dallas gave to fullback Hunter Luepke in 2023, indicates a strong level of interest and high expectations that he’ll make the 53-man roster.

Spann-Ford is the fourth Big Ten tight end on the Cowboys roster, joining Wisconsin’s Jake Ferguson, Luke Schoonmaker (2023’s second-round pick) out of Michigan, and Indiana’s Peyton Hendershot.

(Princeton Fant went to Tennessee, and while the promising John Stephens Jr. went to Louisiana, the Cowboys website technically has him listed as a wide receiver, which was his college position. Alec Holler, from Central Florida, was also signed as an undrafted free agent over the weekend.)

The Cowboys reportedly had a draftable grade on Spann-Ford, a 24-year-old from St. Cloud who bypassed the draft after the 2022 season and returned for a sixth year with the Golden Gophers.

The move didn’t pay off with a big boost to Spann-Ford’s draft stock; his numbers went down in 2023 and he struggled with drops in a disappointing final campaign that saw Minnesota finish 5-7 and Spann-Ford opt out of playing in the Quick Lane Bowl. (He did attend the Senior Bowl and caught a touchdown pass in the game.)

But the Cowboys saw something they liked, and they came calling after the draft ended.

“I’ll never forget this feeling,” Spann-Ford posted on X after news broke about his heading to Dallas. “Right back to work.”

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The Cowboys believe his work could be on John Fassel’s special teams unit.

“I don’t think you can have enough 6-4, 250-pound prototype players on your team. Especially with the [new] kickoff and kickoff return, I think that’s even more prominent,” McCarthy said, per the Dallas Morning News. “You want every position to be as competitive as it can be, and I think there are a lot more reps at special teams that will occur in these games.

“Tight ends, linebackers, outside linebackers: that body type will be pretty prominent, particularly in kickoff coverage.”

Prominent enough, it seems, to pay handsomely for.

Follow all the post-draft signings with the Cowboys Wire UDFA Tracker, which will be updated as needed.

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Broncos met with TE Brevyn Spann-Ford ahead of NFL draft

The Broncos had a pre-draft visit with Minnesota tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford, who is projected to be a sixth-round pick.

The Denver Broncos met with Minnesota’s Brevyn Spann-Ford ahead of the 2024 NFL draft, the tight end revealed at his pro day on March 14.

Spann-Ford (6-6, 260 pounds) ran a 40-yard dash in 4.77 seconds and a 10-yard split in 1.67 seconds at the NFL combine earlier this offseason. He spent five years with the Gophers and is now set to go pro as a 24-year-old rookie.

Spann-Ford totaled 95 receptions for 1,061 yards and seven touchdowns in 56 games at Minnesota. He posted career highs in receptions (42), receiving yards (497) and touchdowns (two) in 2022.

After competing in the Senior Bowl this spring, Spann-Ford is now projected to be a late-round pick in the NFL draft. Most mock drafts have him going off the board in the sixth round, where the Broncos currently hold picks Nos. 203 and 207 (view all of Denver’s picks here).

Adam Trautman re-signed during free agency and Greg Dulcich is healthy, but the Broncos could use more depth behind them. Spann-Ford might be a realistic late-round target for Denver.

The 2024 NFL draft will be held in Detroit from April 25-27.

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2024 Scouting Combine: Six tight end prospects detail their favorite college plays

We asked six big-time tight end prospects for their favorite college plays, and we have the All-22 to go with all of them.

INDIANAPOLIS — Unless you are somehow able to gain access to one of the rooms in which NFL teams meet with draft prospects during the week of the scouting combine, there’s no way to know what’s really discussed. One thing that is almost always happens is a tape-watching expedition in which the NFL people will have play examples dialed up that hopefully show what the prospects can do.

Here at Touchdown Wire, we do not possess the required juice to crash those rooms, but we are able to ask these prospects during their combine media sessions which plays from their college careers best typify their potential.

Today, we asked six tight end prospects — Texas’ Ja’Tavion Sanders, Kansas State’s Ben Sinnott, TCU’s Jared Wiley, Washington’s Jack Westover, Minnesota’s Brevyn Spann-Ford, and Penn State’s Theo Johnson for their favorite college plays. We’ve included the All-22 for all examples, and we hope you find their answers as enlightening as we did.

Panthers 2024 mock draft 2.0: The Morgan-Canales edition

How would a Dan Morgan and Dave Canales-led draft look like? Here’s our early shot at it.

The Carolina Panthers were leader-less, at least in two key positions, the last time we checked in with a mock draft. But things have changed.

On Thursday, the organization will officially introduce new president of football operations/general manager Dan Morgan and new head coach Dave Canales. Both were hired last week, as the team will once again start fresh in building towards a positive future.

So, how will that future look under the new power duo?

Here’s our early Morgan-Canales mock:

2024 Senior Bowl: Day 1 notebook from the first day of practices

2024 Senior Bowl: Day 1 notebook from the first day of practices in Mobile

The 2024 Senior Bowl practices kicked off on a sunny Tuesday in Mobile, Alabama. The National and American teams took to the field at the home of the University of South Alabama Jaguars with over 100 aspiring NFL prospects hoping to show their best in front of hundreds of NFL scouts and media.

Here are some of the notable takeaways from the first day of practices.

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List of tight ends at 2024 Senior Bowl

The tight ends heading to Mobile, Alabama for the 2024 Senior Bowl.

Tight ends are becoming more and more important in the NFL. Just ask the four teams that played on Championship Sunday. All have great pass-catching tight ends. The Jets have a nice one in Tyler Conklin and an up-and-coming one in Jeremy Ruckert.

The Senior Bowl will feature six tight ends hoping to become the next key offensive piece for a team. Here are the six tight ends that will be in Mobile, Alabama, coached by Denver’s Zack Grossi and Logan Kilgore.