Dallas Cowboys: 5 free agent tight ends to replace Dalton Schultz
By Reid Hanson
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Free Agent TEs for the Dallas Cowboys
David Njoku
Age: 25
David Njoku is a name we floated last year as a possible trade target. The highly touted tight end out of Miami had yet to live up to his lofty expectations but still packed a truckload of potential. It was a perfect buy-low scenario for the Dallas Cowboys.
Wouldn’t you know it; Njoku did indeed break out last year, posting his best statistical season of his career – all while working behind Austin Hooper in the Cleveland offense. Abnormally young for a five-year vet, Njoku hits free agency looking for a starting gig. Dallas could offer him that opportunity.
Cleveland could decide to re-sign Njoku, but they’d probably have to cut Hooper to afford it and that would result in $11 million in dead cash. Assuming they stick with Hooper one more season and Njoku hits the market, Njoku should offer Dallas a much cheaper option to sign than Dalton Schultz.
Spotrac estimates his value to come in at $6.9 million annually. Seeing that Njoku posted his best games late in the season, this looks like the perfect buy-low investment on a player about to take his next step. Njoku is an athletic pass-catcher at TE but from the film I viewed, he’s a pretty terrible run-blocker. To put into familiar terms, he’s comparable to Blake Jarwin.
Looking at free agent TEs today for the #Cowboys. David Njoku is estimated to cost $6.9M annually per @spotrac had only 2 drops last year and is just 25. He’s extremely athletic and has been a late bloomer. Buy-low investment #DC4L pic.twitter.com/c0riG6VZlL
— Reid D Hanson (@ReidDHanson) January 26, 2022
Some may ask why Dallas would want another Blake Jarwin when they already have one. Well, he’s younger, more athletic and has a higher ceiling. You could package him (or Blake for that matter) with current TE4 Sean McKeon who happens to be the Dallas Cowboys top run-blocker. Or heck, you could also just have two guys (Njoku and Jarwin) for roughly the price of one Dalton Schultz. That would be a pretty tough duo to defend up the seam, don’t you think?