Between free agency and the draft, the Dallas Cowboys have added many new players. All across the board, the team has been diligent in addressing every area on the roster, throwing this, that, and the other to help make improvements. Well, every area except one. Tight end.
Currently, the team has Jake Ferguson and Luke Schoonmaker as the meat and potatoes of the unit. Ferguson is in the final year of his rookie contract, and it’s unclear if he will be a part of the team’s future. Schoonmaker is halfway through his rookie deal. The team has last year’s undrafted free agent Brevyn Spann-Ford as well as UDFAs from two years ago, Princeton Fant and John Stephens Jr. Fant only played 14 offensive snaps last year, and Stephens Jr. has yet to make his NFL debut as he has suffered a torn ACL in back-to-back seasons.
The tight end position is an important group, especially for the Cowboys’ new offensive coordinator, Klayton Adams. Last season with the Arizona Cardinals, Adams was an “all hands on deck” blocking specialist who relied on the in-line capability of his Y tight ends. Trey McBride was the team’s receiving tight end. His 1,146 receiving yards consisted of 85% of the team’s tight end production, however, fellow tight ends Elijah Higgins and Tip Reiman both logged over 400 snaps. They were on the field quite a bit, but mostly to aid as blockers.
Considering the emphasis the Cowboys are putting on their ground attack this year, it’s reasonable to expect that Adams will be looking for two Y tight ends to help block while Ferguson does most of the heavy lifting in the passing game. Schoonmaker will be one of those in-line blockers, but who will be the other? Here are three players who could be a key piece to the Cowboys’ new offense.
They like what they already have
Brevyn Spann-Ford spent six seasons with the Minnesota Golden Gophers after redshirting his freshman year and gaining an extra year of eligibility from the COVID season. He was a slow starter, but started picking things up in his final three years, although his college production was just okay. He had a strong junior season, leading the team in receptions with 42 catches for 497 yards.
After going undrafted, the Cowboys signed him as a priority free agent last season. He played in all 17 games last season and logged 305 snaps on offense, which was about 75% of the playing time that Schoonmaker got. He only caught nine passes for 88 yards, but was used primarily for his blocking ability.
Spann-Ford is a balanced tight end. At 6’6”, he is one of the taller tight ends in the league, and he uses his long strides to get upfield well, and his long arms give him a large catch radius. His route-running isn’t smooth, and he’ll lose focus when defenders challenge the catch. While he doesn’t excel as a receiver, he makes up for it with his versatility as a blocker. He does a good job squaring up and shows surprisingly good strength at the point of attack. He’s also a sneaky sneakerton who will disengage quickly and leak out into space.
They liked what they could find late in this draft class
Even with seven picks on Day 3, the Cowboys didn’t draft a tight end. They felt confident they could find what they needed after the draft. The team signed two priority free agents in Rivaldo Fairweather and Tyler Neville.
Fairweather is a two-year starter from Auburn after spending three seasons at Florida International. His production was consistent, but not anything that would wow anyone, as he caught 69 passes for 766 yards over his final two years in college. He did find the end zone eight times, including six in 2023.
He is an athletic player who is smooth out of his breaks and shows great body control, turning and adjusting to the ball. He has incredibly long arms and does a great job using them. As a pass-catcher, he uses that length to win contested battles. While he looks the part of a pass-catching tight end, his skills as a blocker are underrated. He does a good job using those long arms to seal the edge at the line of scrimmage. He also shows great patience, holding his block just long enough to sell it before releasing downfield.
Signing Fairweather is right on brand for the Cowboys. He has that athletic upside to be an impact space tight end that isn’t apparent from his college production, but he also has that hidden value as a blocker. Every year, there’s a new athletic UDFA tight end (Peyton Hendershot in 2022, John Stephens Jr. in 2023, Brevyn Spann-Ford in 2024) who shows up, and we are immediately enamored by him. This year, Fairweather will be that guy.
Athleticism is great, but so is perseverance. If there is a more battle-tested player coming out of college than Tyler Neville, I haven’t heard of him. The amount of adversity this guy has had to overcome throughout his life is jaw-dropping. He was born deaf and required surgery at just two years old to implant hearing tubes. When he was 14, he started having breathing problems because his breastbone and rib cage were growing inward, requiring him to have surgery to implant a metal bar across his chest. A year later, he was diagnosed with Stage II Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
Through each obstacle, Neville never gave up. Even when the metal plate put his athletic goals on standby, or he endured physical exhaustion from practicing after undergoing chemotherapy treatments, he just kept going. Neville can hear, the metal plate is gone, and he is cancer-free. With all that behind him, he is making a strong case that he belongs on an NFL roster.
Neville played three seasons at Harvard before transferring to Virginia, where he played one year, recording 37 catches for 394 yards. He doesn’t really have any athletic traits that dazzle on tape, but he’s just one of those scrappy players who somehow get it done. He’s a good run blocker with good strength to lock on and drive, and it’s his ability as a blocker that could punch his ticket at the next level. Considering the relentlessness to never give up, it wouldn’t be wise to bet against him.
With Adams running the show and a greater focus on having quality blockers on the line of scrimmage, the Cowboys may already be equipped to do what they need to do. While it’s unclear which player might emerge and take on a key role, the team appears to have so solid options going forward.