Schultz and Ferguson were both 4th round picks, #134 and #129 respectively. Ferguson started 8 games as a rookie and did well. I expected him to be the TE1 on opening day this year, regardless of who the Cowboys drafted, and am very comfortable with him taking that role. My opinion is that Ferguson can match or exceed what Schultz gave to the Cowboys, and they obviously planned to have him fill that role when they drafted him a year ago, after using the franchise tag on Schultz - who is a very average NFL TE. Ferguson may or may not be an elite prospect, but I'm almost positive he can match the production of Schultz, and Hendershot can be a good receiving option. Ferguson can be "average", like Schultz, which is good enough for the Cowboys' needs.
What remains to be seen is if Schoonmaker will become a substantial upgrade to both Ferguson and Schultz. He's bigger and faster than both of them, and based on his use at Michigan, may also be a better blocker. Travis Kelce identified Ferguson as a potential up and coming star TE. If Schoonmaker is even better, that can only be good for the Cowboys. We'll see. Bottom line is that I'm not too concerned about the TE position on the team.
What is more interesting to me is the battle for TE3, TE4, etc. Hendershot is limited, and both Sean McKeon and John Stephens may be worthy of being on an NFL roster. And that is before we look at Fant, another promising UDFA. All in all, it's a good group of players, which has a chance to be a real net positive for the team.
