《Jake Ferguson》$1,091,221 Avg. Salary
Targets - 56
Receptions - 40
Yards - 421
Touchdowns - 4
《Dalton Schultz》$6,250,000 Avg. Salary
Targets - 58
Receptions - 40
Yards - 455
Touchdowns - 5
Do Ferguson’s rookie year vs Schoonmaker’s now.
“Why you let some guys walk and don’t take 25 year old college backups to replace them with a top 60 pick” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, no matter how prescient.
To be fair, I’m not sure the Cowboys drafted Schoonmaker to be an immediate replacement. TE is a notoriously slow developing position for the college to NFL jump.
Go back and look at the all-timer’s rookie years:
Witten: 35-347-1
Gates: 24-389-2
Gonzalez: 33-368-2
Today’s top TEs are not really different:
Kittle: 43-515-2
Andrews: 34-552-3
Goedert: 33-334-4
Sure every now and then you get a Shockey or Pitts but they are outliers.