Cowboys analyst kills narrative surrounding tight ends after 2023 NFL Draft
Perhaps the most controversial draft pick of the Dallas Cowboys' 2023 class was their second-round selection. At 58th overall, the team grabbed tight end Luke Schoonmaker out of Michigan. For many, it was a little bit too early for Schoonmaker. But at the end of the day, as long as the Cowboys think he can […]
Perhaps the most controversial draft pick of the Dallas Cowboys' 2023 class was their second-round selection. At 58th overall, the team grabbed tight end Luke Schoonmaker out of Michigan.
For many, it was a little bit too early for Schoonmaker. But at the end of the day, as long as the Cowboys think he can be a solid No. 2 with the potential to be the No. 1, whether they picked him or the second or third will be nothing but an afterthought years from now. Clearly, they weren't the only NFL team that liked the TE class as we witnessed a run that saw five tight ends selected in the second round. Another three tight ends were drafted in the third round.
However, part of the narrative against Schoonmaker has little to do with his draft position or even who he is as a player. Many Cowboys fans argue the team already had their guys at tight end in Jake Ferguson and Peyton Hendershot, who impressed as rookies last season.
But to act as if Schoonmaker "is the same" as the two guys already on the roster is unfair. The Athletic's Bob Sturm, who does a fantastic job covering the Cowboys, put an end to that narrative by posting a simple but revealing spreadsheet on Twitter. In it, Sturm compares each player's athleticism based on their testing numbers. Guess who the guy with a lot of green is?
Schoonmaker beats Ferguson and Hendershot in height, weight, vertical jump, broad jump, 40-yard dash, and corresponding 10 and 20-yard splits. He also had a faster three-cone time and has the longest arms out of the group. The rookie also beats Dalton Schultz, now a Houston Texan, in many of these categories.
If you want to narrow it down to one number, we've got RAS: Relative Athletic Score. It tries to boil every testing number to one number that measures how good of an athlete a player is compared to other NFL players at the position. It goes from 0-10 and here's how the Cowboys' tight ends scored:
- Ferguson: 6.74
- Hendershot: 6.91
- Schoonmaker: 9.86
Another way to read that is to say Schoonmaker's athleticism is in the 99th percentile among NFL tight ends. He's a capital-a ATHLETE. His RAS score is the 16th best among 1,105 tight ends between 1987 and 2023, per Kent Lee Platte. Now granted, being the better athlete doesn't automatically translate to being the better football player. We know that.
However, the reasoning behind picking Schoonmaker is very clear. The Cowboys hope to develop him into a legitimate threat at tight end. He also fits the team's definition of a "Y" tight end very well and the team likely sees him as a better blocker than their other young guys at the position.
That being said, Ferguson will put up a fight for the starting gig. He proved what he can do after the catch for the Cowboys and despite being the lesser athlete, his flashes as a rookie suggest he can be a playmaker. More than once last season, he hurdled or juked a defender while leaving everyone's mouth open.
He and Schoonmaker will be the main characters of what could be the most intense positional battle in Dallas this offseason. We can't wait to see how it plays out.
