Dallas Cowboys: 3 possible surprise starters in 2021

Even though the Dallas Cowboys are coming off a losing season, the starting positions in 2021 appear to be fairly settled. Key players are coming back from injuries and the vast majority of Dallas’ offseason additions will be vying for rotational and back-up spots, rather than pushing for starting jobs.

That doesn’t mean starting spots aren’t up for grabs at all, though. Some starting jobs aren’t as secure as others and we could see some expected starters get bumped for the lead role.

Here are three players who could surprise by winning starting roles on the Dallas Cowboys this season.

Obviously injuries can change the entire landscape, so for the purposes of this exercise, we’ll be taking that out of the equation. We’re focusing on players who could exceed expectations and win jobs the old fashioned way – by outperforming the guy in front of him.

Linebacker and Tight End

Two positions we purposely avoided were the linebacker and tight end positions. Linebacker is likely to be a steady rotation of Micah Parsons, Keanu Neal, Jaylon Smith, and Leighton Vander Esch. Depending on the package, we could see different starters each week and it really won’t mean a thing.

Tight end is also going to be a bit organic as well. I fully expect Blake Jarwin to get the TE1 spot, but also expect to see Dalton Schultz get plenty of action as the lone TE and not be stuck in a typical TE2 role of only playing in 12 personnel packages. It wouldn’t shock me at all to see Schultz as a starting TE one week and see Jarwin start the next.

The list starts now…