No one really asks Dalton Schultz about catching passes anymore.
The Cowboys tight end did plenty of that last season, finishing 2021 with just one reception fewer than team leader CeeDee Lamb. He was 10 grabs better than Amari Cooper, less than 60 receiving yards behind him, and tied with him for touchdowns.
Over the past two seasons, the 25-year-old has 141 receptions, 1,423 yards, and 12 scores. That kind of dependability at first softened the blow of losing Blake Jarwin to injury and eventually made releasing him a formality. And it earned Schultz a hefty $10.9 million payday when the Dallas front office placed the franchise tag on him in March.
But for that kind of money, fans and analysts alike want the full package. And that means the 6-foot-5-inch, 255-pound Schultz is expected to be an top-tier blocker, too.
“Tight ends in this league, you’re not going to win based on pure size and strength. You’re just not,” Schultz told reporters this week during the Cowboys’ first OTA sessions of the year. “D-ends are big, fast, strong. That’s why they get paid $20-mil-pus a year. They’re freaks. They’re freak athletes. So you’ve got to beat them with technique, you’ve got to beat them with speed, you’ve got to beat them with great footwork. If you’re able to do all of those things, that puts you in a good position to win.”
Here's supposed "terrible" blocker Dalton Schultz making objectively good blocks throughout the 2021 season. pic.twitter.com/sKgPnSbOMe
— John Owning (@JohnOwning) March 8, 2022
There’s a widespread perception that Schultz’s blocking skills have been a liability. It’s a knock that clearly bristles the Stanford product every time it comes up in interviews.
“My blocking’s been one of my strong suits,” he countered. “Everybody doesn’t agree with that; everyone has their own opinion on that. But that’s always something I’ve been able to hang my hat on. Now, blocking, like, the Chandler Joneses of the world every play? It’s hard. You’re not going to win every rep, and that’s just the NFL. But I think to succeed in this league, you have to have that work ethic of, ‘Okay, I realize this happened, this play happened. I need to move forward from that play.’ In the offseason, you need to go back and work hard to correct those things.”
Schultz is doing just that. He says he’s been a “gym rat” this offseason and is looking forward to seeing how some new bulk and added muscle helps quiet those doubters once the pads go on.
Cowboys TE Dalton Schultz added about five or six pounds this offseason so he can "hold my own a little more" blocking some of larger edge defenders the team faces, particularly in NFC East. Might not sound much to non-athlete, he said, but extra mass a "serious improvement."
— Michael Gehlken (@GehlkenNFL) April 18, 2022
And now there’s a new tight end in the room with him. Some are already calling him serious competition. The Cowboys drafted Wisconsin’s Jake Ferguson in this year’s fourth round. Coming from the run-heavy Big Ten and a traditionally hard-nosed Badgers offense, much was made of Ferguson’s blocking skills.
The budget-conscious fans who believe the Cowboys are currently spending too much on the tight end position are hoping Ferguson shows enough promise to signal a changing of the guard sooner rather than later.
For now, though, the veteran is working on improving his own game while serving as a mentor for the youngster coming up behind him, just as a former Cowboy did for him back in 2018.
“When I came in, I had a couple guys that really set the standard,” Schultz recalled. “Geoff Swaim set the standard for me, helped me along.”
In Schultz’s rookie season, Swaim doubled him up in terms of on-the-field stats. By 2019, Swaim was in Jacksonville… but Schultz stayed buried on the depth chart due to Jason Witten’s return from retirement. It wasn’t until 2020- and the sudden loss of Jarwin in the season opener- that Schultz was able to show off all he had been learning along the way.
“Obviously, tight end in the NFL is a tough job,” the former fourth-round draft pick explained. “You’re going against guys like DeMarcus Lawrence every week. Everybody’s a D-Law, every team’s got a D-Law. You’re asked to do a lot. And you’re asked to do a lot very quickly, especially in this offense. What we ask our tight ends to do is a lot different from some other places.”
And that’s all part of what Schultz is now helping to teach the rookie Ferguson.
“I made that clear. I just reached out to him when he was drafted and said, ‘Hey, man, you’re going to be asked to do a lot. And it’s going to be like a mental process, in addition to just the transition coming into the league as a rookie tight end.”
Whether those lessons lead to Ferguson overtaking the veteran and ultimately sending him elsewhere or creating a powerhouse 1-2 punch at tight end for the Cowboys’ future, Schultz plans to simply keep punching in and doing the work to make himself the best tight end he can be…
Catching passes and blocking the league’s freak athletes.
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