2 Cowboys free agents who left that fans will miss and 2 that they won’t
By Jerry Trotta
Will miss: Dalton Schultz
Like Watkins, you can argue both sides for Schultz, too. While Jake Ferguson and Peyton Hendershot showed plenty of promise as rookies, it’s worth pondering if either player should be entrusted as a starter in Year 2.
Schultz is a flawed player — some of which were exposed in the playoff loss to San Francisco — but he’s a really good player. So much so that the Cowboys purportedly tried to retain him before the franchise tag extension deadline.
They viewed him as a key piece, and rightly so after he caught 78 balls for 808 yards and eight touchdowns in 2021. His 2022 stats weren’t as gaudy, but they’re skewed from the five weeks Prescott missed as Schultz went four weeks without catching a single pass (he was inactive for two of them).
Prescott trusted Schultz in high-leverage situations and more often than not his security blanked answered the bell. Schultz could be replaced in the draft, but it speaks volumes about how much of a hole his departure created that ample mocks have Dallas taking a tight end with the No. 26 overall pick.
