Dallas Cowboys 7-Round Mock Draft: Upgrade the attack

Brycen Hopkins, TE, Purdue

Alright, I hear you. A receiver in the first round; a tight end in the second round. What are we doing here? Making sure our soon to be $33+ million quarterback has all the passing targets to be as successful as he can be. Sound like a plan?

Ok don’t click off yet, I promise you this could be a nice pairing for the Cowboys. With Jason Witten’s status for the 2020 season unclear the Cowboys will have Blake Jarwin, Dalton Schultz, and Cole Hikutini under contract. While a promising group, it could use some quality depth.

Enter Brycen Hopkins. The fifth year senior completed his most productive season as a Boilermaker catching 61 passes for 830 yards and seven touchdowns. This earned him All-Big 10 honors. The Boilermakers dealt with their fair share of injuries this season making Hopkins’ production even more impressive as he was a priority in the passing game.

Hopkins is an athletic beast. He can run fast in a straight line and will probably succeed at running around three cones in a faster time than others in his position group. He also can jump really high according to Senior Bowl ex director Jim Nagy.

That jumping ability is very apparent on tape as he makes contested and 50/50 ball catches with ease. At 6’4″, 241 pounds, he’s very well put together. Looking fairly lean, he is not lacking in lower body strength at all. This is great when run blocking as he can engage at the point of attack without losing balance from his base.

However, one of the most interesting traits of Hopkins’ game is his route running ability. Tight ends of his size and athleticism don’t often come with the attention to detail that Hopkins has in his route running. His crispness in and out of breaks and his awareness of when to change direction make Hopkins a lethal receiving weapon as he gets open with little issue. In general, he is a very fluid runner.

This last part is what makes him an interesting fit with the Cowboys. We have come to learn that “Dak-friendly” receivers are good route runners. No tight end on this roster is as good a route runner as Hopkins. (I know Blake Jarwin is a good receiver but the ease with which Hopkins separates is pretty unique)

Selecting Hopkins would give the Cowboys the opportunity to run different tight ends in their 12 personnel sets. If they wanted to take advantage of matchups in the passing game, bring in Hopkins and Jarwin. If you wanted to bring bodies for run blocking, Hopkins and Schultz would be a good duo. The ability to move Hopkins around like a chess piece could make this offense nearly unstoppable… or so we think.