Dallas Cowboys: 5 free agent tight ends to replace Dalton Schultz
By Reid Hanson
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.
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?