The Dallas Cowboys began the day with a lot of nice options staring them in the face. But right from the jump, options began falling like dominos. From Joey Porter Jr, to Sam LaPorta, to Steve Avila, to Michael Mayer, things got dark fast.
As it turns out, the Cowboys had plans of their own and no one was likely to mess with them.
The Dallas Cowboys selected TE Luke Schoonmaker at Pick 58.
As if the first round didn’t make enough waves, the second round made sure the boat was rocking. Schoonmaker, the 80th ranked player on the consensus board, was not on a lot of radars coming up on 58.
Darnell Washington and Tucker Kraft were the headliners remaining from the tight end class but the blocking specialist Schoonmaker took the honors.
Luke Schoonmaker was drafted with pick 58 of round 2 in the 2023 draft class. He scored a 9.86 #RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 16 out of 1105 TE from 1987 to 2023. https://t.co/Ml2B0eOGKS pic.twitter.com/ItzfUA2Sa2
— Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) April 29, 2023
Rating TE7 on Dane Brugler’s big board, Schoonmaker measured 6-foot-5, 252 pounds with 33 inch arms. He’s likely the best run blocker on Dallas’ board and comes to the Cowboys with a workman attitude and a clear willingness to “stick his face in the ceiling fan.”
He’s athletic and fast (4.63 speed) and has untapped receiving skills coming from a run happy program. He has RAC ability and could be a plus route-runner.
How new #Cowboys TE Luke Schoonmaker fares in PFF's stable metrics: pic.twitter.com/vAB7XKpOGB
— John Owning (@JohnOwning) April 29, 2023
His bread and butter is run blocking and he figures to secure an immediate role as a Y inline TE as a rookie. Only has three contested catches in his career so there is a lot of undiscovered elements to his game.
Like picks of Cowboys’ past, Schoonmaker has traits you can’t teach. He’s athletically gifted with soft hands and a special knack for finding soft spots in zones. Most of his work is done in the middle of the field which is an area Dak likes to target his TEs. He’s also a screen option and player who can possibly take some snaps at the X spot in trips formation (like Dallas used Schultz).
Dallas Cowboys make waves, select Mazi Smith, DT, Michigan
The Dallas Cowboys looked in the mirror long enough to finally accept the run defense was a problem and they addressed it in the first round of the draft.
The sky is the limit. A reach? sure, but the Cowboys have no problem over drafting if the player possesses untapped ability and Schoonmaker has plenty of that.