Dallas Cowboys: Who will step up at tight end now?

With the news that starting tight end Geoff Swaim has a broken wrist, who will step up in his place for the Dallas Cowboys? Could it be rookie Dalton Schultz?

It’s no secret the Dallas Cowboys miss future Hall of Fame tight end Jason Witten. For 15 years, Witten was a stalwart at the position for America’s Team. The 11-time Pro Bowler, four-time All-Pro and 2012 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award winner suddenly announced his retirement in May, leaving Dallas without a true replacement.

11 games into the regular season and it’s been former seventh-rounder Geoff Swaim that has stepped up post-Witten. The Cowboys’ top blocker and receiver at the position, Swaim has been able to provide a consistent performance, one the team can rely on every week.

But the fact is, Swaim hasn’t had much competition for that starting role. And that doesn’t bode well for the Cowboys now that it’s been revealed that Swaim suffered a broken wrist during the final series in Dallas’ win over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.

Although the Cowboys are not calling this injury a season-ender, Swaim will have surgery and he is expected to be sidelined for several weeks. So who will take his place in Dallas?

One might be surprised to hear the name Dalton Schultz as a likely candidate. Selected late in the fourth round by the Cowboys in the 2018 NFL Draft out of Stanford, Schultz followed in a long line of former Cardinal tight ends like Zach Ertz, Coby Fleener and Austin Hooper who have found success in the NFL.

Schultz was a former offensive lineman before moving to tight end, so he was considered one of the better blockers coming out of college. He also displayed solid receiving skills, although he wasn’t asked to be much of a pass catcher while at Stanford.

Unfortunately, Schultz’s development was slow this offseason and he figured to be dead last on the depth chart behind Swaim, 2017 undrafted free agent Blake Jarwin and former basketball star Rico Gathers. Still, his draft status allowed him a free pass through final cuts prior to the start of the season. And the rookie’s playing time has slowly started to build.

After being a healthy scratch for five out of the team’s first six games of the season, Schultz has been getting more snaps as of late. With Swaim out in Week Nine due to a sprained MCL, the rookie racked a season-high 24 offensive snaps. The next game, against the Philadelphia Eagles, Schultz posted a career-high two receptions for 21 yards on just eight offensive snaps.

Over the weekend, in the Cowboys big win over the Atlanta Falcons, no tight end other than Swaim had more snaps than Schultz. The rookie had 11 opportunities, while Gathers had nine and Jarwin had just three offensive snaps. In fact, this was back-to-back games where Jarwin posted a season-low total of snaps on offense with just three in each contest.

According to the trends we’ve seen, it’s Dalton Schultz that could be asked to play a large part in filling the vacancy at tight end in the Dallas Cowboys’ pivotal Thanksgiving matchup against the Washington Redskins. But is the rookie truly ready to step up to the moment? We’ll see.