From @ToddBrock24f7: The Notre Dame star could be the Cowboys’ tight end of the future, and a handful of late mock drafts predict that’s how things will fall.
The drumbeat is getting louder for the Cowboys to address an obvious thin spot on their roster with a prospect who is at the top of his class now… and could be at the top of his position’s class in the pros before much longer.
On Draft Day Eve, more outlets are mocking Notre Dame tight end Michael Mayer to Dallas with the 26th overall pick… and they present a convincing case for why the Joneses should make it happen in real life on Thursday night.
The ESPN Analytics Draft Day Predictor pegs Mayer’s chances of still being on the board in the 26th spot at about 60%. The site also has Mayer as the most likely pick for Dallas, with a chance he’ll be the selection at greater than 11%. Jacksonville looks to be the main competition for the Cowboys to land him; the predictor says there’s a 10% chance the Jaguars will turn in Mayer’s card with the 24th pick.
Utah’s Dalton Kincaid is considered by many outlets to have more potential upside than Mayer, but The 33rd Team’s Mike Tannenbaum likes the Golden Domer’s blocking skills better. He has Mayer as the pick for Dallas at 26 in that site’s latest mock draft, echoing most analysts who say the not-yet-22-year-old will step in and be a Day One starter.
Blocking is a key component when talking about any tight end, especially for a Mike McCarthy-helmed club. The head coach spoke just this week about the multiple roles his offense will ask tight ends to fill, and in a scheme that leaned heavily on two-TE sets last year and promises to “run the damn ball” this year, McCarthy made it clear that his tight ends will be doing plenty of the heavy lifting.
Dalton Schultz, the Cowboys starter in 2022, “eventually became a willing, passable blocker,” notes Jake Kemp of D Magazine. But Mayer, he says, “blocks to take the defender’s will away from him” and calls him “a cheat code” once you factor in his abilities as a receiver.
Mayer can certainly do that, too. He “has a little Jason Witten to his game,” Danny Kelly points out in The Ringer‘s mock draft. Considering Big Witt is the franchise’s all-time leader in both catches and receiving yards, even “a little” Jason Witten would go a long way in replacing- and surpassing- Schultz’s production in that department. Kelly mocks Mayer to Dallas at 26, too, forecasting: “He should quickly emerge as one of Dak Prescott’s favorite underneath targets.”
That’s no knock on second-year tight ends Jake Ferguson and Peyton Hendershot. Both played well enough as rookies in 2022 that it was obvious Schultz would be allowed to leave in free agency. But Ferguson was a fourth-round draft pick; Hendershot went undrafted. Either could eventually grow into what Schultz was; Mayer might well turn into another Rob Gronkowski or George Kittle.
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For the Fighting Irish last season, Mayer put up monster numbers in an offense where he was the primary weapon, one that opposing defenses keyed on and still couldn’t stop. What’s more, Kemp notes that Mayer finished in the top ten nationwide in both forced missed tackles and contested catches.
Mayer is a clear-cut first-round talent, but the Cowboys haven’t used an opening-round pick on a tight end since David LaFleur in 1997, The Athletic‘s Jon Machota reminds us. And the Packers never did that during McCarthy’s 13-year tenure in Green Bay. But Machota also sends Mayer to Dallas at 26 in their latest beat writers’ mock, heeding McCarthy’s own apparent openness to the idea at the team’s pre-draft press conference.
“As many 6-4, 250 pound men that can play on four downs: I don’t think you can have enough of that body type on your team,” McCarthy said Monday. “There’s more versatility there.”
Mayer would no doubt give the Cowboys offense tons of versatility, and for many years to come. But whether the Cowboys grab their don’t-think-about-it-again tight end of the future or decide to march to the beat of their own drum come draft night remains to be seen.
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