Dallas Cowboys 53-man roster predictions: Training camp rolling

Tight Ends (3)

Dalton Schultz, Blake Jarwin, Sean McKeon

Once upon a time it seemed Dallas might never find their replacement for Hall-of-Fame Tight End Jason Witten. Instead, the Cowboys now have two starting caliber tight ends without enough play time to go around. As for all of you who previously wanted Schultz to pack his bags, I remember each and every one of you and I will be running victory laps around you every time Schultz catches a pass.

My good-natured pettiness aside, the Cowboys should only need to carry three tight ends this season. Last season, the team surprisingly carried four in order to prevent then rookie Sean McKeon from falling in the hands of another team through waivers. With Blake Bell no longer in the picture the number could shrink. Of course, this is dependent on the health of Blake Jarwin as he returns from a torn ACL that ended his season after the first week of the 2020 season.

If Jarwin progresses nicely in the next month without Schultz or McKeon missing time due to injury, the services of Jeremy Sprinkle would not be necessary to start the regular season. The team already needs to give targets to Schultz and Jarwin and McKeon likely makes his impact on special teams. Sprinkle then is just taking up a roster spot.

Now, there is a very real possibility Sprinkle ends up ahead of McKeon once the preseason finishes, but as of today, McKeon has made far more noise in training camp with an impressive catch from Garrett Gilbert at the end of Thursday’s practice. Also if it wasn’t evident by how the wide receiver room shook out, the players that teams pick or sign as UDFAs are usually the guys teams want to keep when two players are equal after competition has taken place.

Neat.