Dallas Cowboys: Blake Jarwin ACL Injury Update (fallout and more)

Dallas Cowboys TE1 Blake Jarwin fell to injury – what’s his status and what comes next…

This season was supposed to be Blake Jarwin‘s big chance. With Jason Witten plodding around in Las Vegas, the path was finally clear for Jarwin to shine as the Dallas Cowboys explosive new TE1. And with Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup, and CeeDee Lamb dominating the defenses attention, Jarwin stood to profit immensely this season.

That is until the unthinkable happened…

If you’ll notice, the high hopes for Blake Jarwin were all written in past tense above. That’s because the Dallas Cowboys fear they’ve lost their budding young star for the season in what many are reporting to be an ACL tear.

As stated above, Jarwin will have an MRI later today to confirm, but initial diagnoses such as these are usually correct and confirmation is a mere formality.

Dallas Cowboys: Injury Fallout at TE

Assuming Blake Jarwin did indeed tear his ACL and he is therefore lost for the season, what happens next? Well, Dalton Schultz happens next.

In training camp Dalton Schultz held off the veteran Blake Bell to earn the TE2 spot behind Jarwin. The well-rounded Schultz was preferable to the man known as the Bell-Dozer because Schultz actually flashed some pass-catching ability.

Dalton’s performance was a mixed bag in relief of Jarwin on Sunday Night. He caught the ball and dropped the ball. He won blocks and he lost blocks. He kinda did what you’d expect from a Day 3 draft pick suddenly pushed into starting duty in his third year.

While the falloff from Blake Jarwin to Dalton Schultz is severe, it’s not as dire as some think. Schultz has been unfairly underappreciated in Cowboys Nation and my efforts to sing his praises notwithstanding, he’s still a serious concern to many fans.

While I did predict Schultz was going to claim TE2 handily this year, I’m not exactly bullish on his ability to be a strong TE1. Think of him as  Joe Looney 2.0. Like Looney, he’s a smart player who’s far from disastrous. But also like Looney, he’s a below average starter and someone you want to avoid leaning on.

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The Dallas Cowboys will likely need to look into the free agent market to round out their depth and potentially threaten Schultz at TE1. One name who comes to mind in Delanie Walker. Walker was hurt most of last season and remains unsigned today. His best days are clearly behind him but he may not be completely washed up either. We’ll dive more into Walker tomorrow and how he could be a nice fit on this Cowboys team.

Until then, this is where we stand. It looks like Blake Jarwin is lost for the year and Dalton Schultz is the next man up. Ideal? no. But he’s not a bad player either and as long as he continues his solid blocking, he can hold his own on this otherwise loaded offense.

Blake Jarwin is out and Dalton Schultz is up. That’s where we stand today.

• Published on 09/14/2020 at 11:30 AM
• Last updated at 09/14/2020 at 06:23 AM