The price for not keeping Dalton Schultz

[DoctorChicken]

Schoonmaker will be just as good as Schultz blocking and he’s a good pass catcher and route runner too.

I have one complaint with Schoonmaker - YAC. I don’t know how a 250 pound man goes down at first contact as often as he does.

 

[TwistedL0g1k]

He walks in as a rookie a better blocker than Schultz. That is a huge upgrade for the Cowboys and why they drafted him and let Schultz go.

That's a massive assumption. Here's what PFF says about Schultz's blocking last season:

"Of the 23 tight ends to run block at least 300 times last season, Schultz ranked fourth best with an 8.7% positive run-block rate and fifth best with a 13.2% negative run-block rate."

His blocking improved dramatically over the years.

Edit to add... The reason the Cowboys let Schultz go was cost. They tried to re-sign him. The team did not draft Schoon as an upgrade, he was a replacement.

 

[OmerV]

He walks in as a rookie a better blocker than Schultz. That is a huge upgrade for the Cowboys and why they drafted him and let Schultz go.

All I heard leading up to the draft he doing what we can for Dak. Well I would think protecting him was a high priority. Done.

You took that quote out of context. I went on to say I expect he will be a better blocker than Schultz.

And no, that wasn't why they let Schultz go. It was Schultz expected price tag and cap hit that was why they let Schultz go.

But let's not pretend Schoonmaker was considered an elite blocker as a prospect, but again, I agree it seems likely he will be an upgrade over Schultz at that particular skill. The reason I said it didn't look like an upgrade at the position was that we don't know if he will be as good a receiver as Schultz. There is also the fact we have Ferguson, who looked good in his limited opportunities, and Hendershot who shows some promise as well, and it is unknown how much, if any, he will be better than those guys.

 

[DuncanIso]

The front office felt like TE was a need and couldn't risk waiting until round 3 to get the player they wanted.

Schoonmamer was considered a reach at 58 overall.

Had we kept Schultz for 1 year, we could've gone Torrence, Mims, Drew Sanders, Kendre Miller or a lot of other players.

Would you rather have kept Schultz and gone with a different pick at 58?

Or are you glad the front office moved on from Dalton and that savings of $9 million this year?

They should have kept Schultz. [If TE1 was that easy, everyone would have one.]

But at least they saved $$$.

I guess.

 

[quickccc]

Scouting reports, draft reports, positional coaches interviews, coordinators interviews, various articles.........

it's a difference with going by what you read and college highlight reels ... vs actually putting on the pads, placing him on the playing field. to see if the guy actually lives up
to his billing and write ups.

His performance in the NFL level, in actual NFL live games will be " Prove " .

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Schoonmaker will be just as good as Schultz blocking and he’s a good pass catcher and route runner too.

I have one complaint with Schoonmaker - YAC. I don’t know how a 250 pound man goes down at first contact as often as he does.

Part of that looks like it is because of how he approaches contact. He would twist and crouch awkwardly destroying balance.

Michigan concentrated on the blocking side of things.

 

[quickccc]

They should have kept Schultz. [If TE1 was that easy, everyone would have one.]

But at least they saved $$$.

I guess.

I don't recall NFL teams running nd pounding on his door to sign Schultz up .. Not like he was an open market gem that teams just had to sign.

Schultz even gotten got far lesser of a contract deal ( only 1 year deal) with the hapless Texans than what Hunter Henry (3 years 37 million with Pats) ...
.and Jonnu Smith ( 4 yrs 50 million) previiusly signed for ....and neither TE performed as their contract price tag expectations.

Quite frankly Schultz is a much better, more productive TE than either. ,imo.

Needless to say the Pats had to re--do the TE search with Geisek signing a 1 year deal. (same as Schultz)

 

[Reid1boys]

I like Ferguson, don't get me wrong, but he was a late 4th round pick. Expectations are a little out of hand if we are saying they knew he would be the starter for 2023. Many 4th rounders are career special teams players and often out of the league by the end of their rookie deals.

If anything for a 4th rounder like Ferguson you should probably put expectations that he becomes a solid #2 TE, and if so that's a successful draft pick at that point in the draft. He showed last season he fit that role pretty well, anything else he gives is just icing on top.

Schultz was a 4th rd pick. Kittle was a 5th rd pick, Darren Waller was a 6th rd pick,...... it isnt like you have to get a TE in rd 1 or 2 to expect them to be productive.
They absolutely drafted Ferguson knowing Schultz was likely gone this year.

 

[thunderpimp91]

Schultz was a 4th rd pick. Kittle was a 5th rd pick, Darren Waller was a 6th rd pick,...... it isnt like you have to get a TE in rd 1 or 2 to expect them to be productive.
They absolutely drafted Ferguson knowing Schultz was likely gone this year.

I agree they thought that Schultz was likely gone after they tagged him, but that still doesn't mean you count on a 4th round rookie to be ready to go in a year. You can find any position at any round in the draft, but the odds go down considerably after the first two rounds, and TE is no exception. You look back from the 2017 draft until today you don't see many 4th round success stories, Schultz may be the only one, plus you have some potential from the 2022 class. You look further back than that you can find some round 4 successes in guys like Aaron Hernandez, Tyler Higbee, etc. Statistically speaking though for the most part though you tend to have maybe a 20% chance of landing a starting TE in the round if we use the term starter pretty loosely.

Great season from Ferguson in 2022, but that doesn't mean that he can just be thrown into the starting role and see success. Maybe he can and will, but I do feel a lot better that the Cowboys went out and added to the TE room.

 

[Stash]

The front office felt like TE was a need and couldn't risk waiting until round 3 to get the player they wanted.

Schoonmamer was considered a reach at 58 overall.

Had we kept Schultz for 1 year, we could've gone Torrence, Mims, Drew Sanders, Kendre Miller or a lot of other players.

Would you rather have kept Schultz and gone with a different pick at 58?

Or are you glad the front office moved on from Dalton and that savings of $9 million this year?

Very glad that the team stopped overpaying Schultz.

 

[Big_D]

It was time to move on, you can't pay Schulz that money. And Schoonmaker was taken in the neighborhood he would've been drafted. The idea that he was a reach or would've been there a round later is just ridiculous speculation.

 

[Nav22]

By midseason, we'll all be laughing at Schultz's lack of production in Houston while our guy is lapping him in Rec/Yds/TD.

You people can't seriously believe Schultz was a special player.

 

[plasticman]

We didn't need to draft a TE in the 2nd round just because Schultz left. I feel very strongly that the Cowboys were going to be okay with their two rookies from last season. In fact, they would be okay with them and McKeon.

Instead, they have to make their traditional 2nd round reach and get another TE that will make minimal contributions throughout his rookie contract. Tragic.

 

[J12B]

After the draft and he found out in free agency that he had way overplayed his hand with minimal interest. if he was willing to take that, i believe we sign him before the draft. reports were he turned down 3/36.

I think they offered him that last offseason during the franchise tag process.

Schultz better have fired his agent.

 

[beware_d-ware]

TEs face a loooong learning curve in the pros. Especially as blockers.

Really good receiving TEs can start fast. WRs are the fastest-starting rookies at any position, except maybe RB. So sometimes glorified WRs like say Engram can go out and put skins on the wall as rookies. But the in-line types nearly always suck for 2-4 years before they become good, if they ever do.

I think the best plan of action for Schoon is to make him a glorified wide receiver. Tell him "you run a 4.59, go jump in the slot and run a whip route on the LB". He's pretty darn athletic, so he could be pretty effective at it, and it would provide his fastest route to early production. Have Ferguson hold down the fort in-line.

But if we want him to be an in-line Witten type TE, it's going to go really badly. Schoon going to suck at it for a couple seasons, because young TEs inevitably do. He's going to block Ferguson and prevent him from providing any value on his rookie deal. And by the time Schoon gets good, he'll need a second contract at nearly age 30. It's just really bad business and not at all worth a second round pick.

My #1 plan would have been to just resign Dalton Schultz for about 4 years $30M. There's no bust risk or learning curve like with a rook, and Schultz is a safe bet to stay on top of his game throughout that deal. He's been fairly healthy and TEs' games usually age well. And would have got paid to remain in a system where he's been productive. So IMO, there was a lot of room for a win-win deal. But he asked for 4 years $50M in 2021, which was way out of line with his value. And after the Cowboys used the FT (which players loathe), it sounds like that well was way too poisoned.

 

[gtb1943]

It is their opinion. And yes they get paid to talk. Have you ever noticed, the usually give 2 sides to every thing. Except when it come to Dallas, mostly negative, like many on here.

At the draft time, as I said, no one said it was a reach. If they have said so since, I did not see those segments.

Just wanted to show that you can't get your facts straight. You claimed no one in the media said it was a reach and you were wrong as usual.

 

[gtb1943]

They thought Tyler Smith was a reach as well and they were absolutely wrong.

You really want to get into the game of who has been more wrong; the so called experts or the Boys?

 

[gtb1943]

By midseason, we'll all be laughing at Schultz's lack of production in Houston while our guy is lapping him in Rec/Yds/TD.

You people can't seriously believe Schultz was a special player.

I don't see anyone thinking he was a SPECIAL player. Frankly I was glad to seem him go; did not want to overpay him to stay.
But we shall see about Schoon. Nothing is for certain until the games are real.

 

[rambo2]

You really want to get into the game of who has been more wrong; the so called experts or the Boys?

Lol, the Cowboys are one of the best drafting teams in the entire league. Just forget it.

 

[speedkilz88]

We didn't need to draft a TE in the 2nd round just because Schultz left. I feel very strongly that the Cowboys were going to be okay with their two rookies from last season. In fact, they would be okay with them and McKeon.

Instead, they have to make their traditional 2nd round reach and get another TE that will make minimal contributions throughout his rookie contract. Tragic.

They didn't want "okay", they wanted to upgrade and had the deepest TE class in some time to get one.