In a record-breaking draft for tight ends, the Cowboys waited

Since the start of the seven-round draft in 1994, the record for most tight ends drafted in one year was 19 in 2015. The 2026 class had 21 tight ends drafted. In round three, tight ends Sam Roush, Oscar Delp, and Will Kacmarek were all drafted before the Cowboys landed another defender that helps the depth chart at more than one position with Jaishawn Barham. There were also eight wide receivers drafted between picks 65 and Barham at 92, another position we know the Cowboys are making a big bet on what they already have in place, mainly George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb. North Dakota State wide receiver Bryce Lance went to the Saints at pick 136, one pick ahead of where the Cowboys landed LT Overton, the hand-in-the-ground defensive end they needed, as well as depth behind Kenny Clark and Quinnen Williams at defensive tackle in their new base 3-4 front. The value the Cowboys got in their defensive picks by not having to press for needs on offense was off the charts.

Heavy usage of multiple tight end sets was a strong trend through last season, one that carried over into the playoffs with three NFC West teams making the field, a division known for this type of offensive approach. The Bears being in this NFC field with Ben Johnson in his first season calling that offense helped as well, and in the AFC the conference champion Patriots of course relied a lot on Hunter Henry as a receiving option to help out an otherwise weaker group of pass catchers out wide. Modern NFL offenses going to more 12 and 13 personnel is a direct response to modern defenses living in two high safety looks to deter big plays over the top from receivers. The 2026 draft made a statement that getting teams out of two high shell is a must-have ability for some of the best play callers, and having capable tight ends is a good way to do this, judging by the way they were flying off the board. The Jaguars, who had their own record-breaking season under first year offensive-minded head coach Liam Cohn in 2025, drafted two tight ends with Nate Boerkircher and Tanner Koziol. So too did a team always known for hanging their hat on physical play, the Denver Broncos, drafting Justin Joly and Dallen Bentley at the position. The Browns under new head coach Todd Monken got a pair of tight ends in Joe Royer and Carsen Ryan, as did their division rival the Baltimore Ravens in Josh Cuevas and Matthew Hibner. Amazingly, a **fifth** team also took multiple tight ends, the rebuilding Miami Dolphins, looking to help long-time backup quarterback and now starter Malik Willis with Will Kacmarek and Seydou Traore. The highest drafted tight end went to the Jets with a new play-caller in Frank Reich, tasked with the unenviable job of trying to get better play out of Geno Smith. They gave Smith a reliable target at TE in Kenyon Sadiq in the first round to help this cause. In his first year as head coach and play-caller for the Cowboys, Brian Schottenheimer’s offense showed all the glimpses of being built in the same mold as the ones mentioned above, mainly in their ability to be multiple and dictate matchups. Tight ends with versatility go a very long way in helping an offense achieve this too. Jake Ferguson’s targets skyrocketed from 86 in 14 games in 2024 to 102 in a full season in 2025. His yards per game stayed exactly the same though at 35.3, and he ended the season with four straight games of three or fewer catches. After catching six touchdowns in the first seven weeks of the year, Ferguson had just two in the remaining ten games of the season. Whether or not Ferguson could be a reliable, consistent big-play threat in Schotty’s offense was a topic of much discussion all last offseason. The eye test from a regular season showed over the course of the season that Ferguson was still missing that consistency and big-play pop. By not finding a way to get in on the tight end draft party this year, it is going to be yet another spring and summer season where all of the exact same questions will be asked about Ferguson from now until kickoff in September. The Cowboys have maintained their depth behind Ferguson to have viable 12 and 13 personnel looks well, with Luke Schoonmaker still on the roster as well as Brevyn Spann-Ford. Spann-Ford was banged up through much of the season, but is a fan-favorite type player in his niche role, and exactly the type of player the Cowboys will need to help add new wrinkles to the offense. Princeton Fant is a player in somewhat of a similar mold, although he will go into year four having played just 14 career snaps on offense, all of which came before Schottenheimer was the play caller in 2024. Not allowing defenses to take away the vertical ability of Lamb and Pickens is absolutely something the Cowboys should be looking to do a lot of in 2026, but also taking advantage of the attention both receivers draw in order to be schemed against is something they can do in a variety of ways. Whether this is running the ball against two high looks, getting Jaydon Blue involved in the passing game out of the backfield more, or freeing up Ryan Flournoy and KaVontae Turpin in the middle of the field, the Cowboys did about as well as they possibly could to go into this draft with enough trust in their offense to do what had to be done on defense.