Dallas Cowboys’ Pro Bowl Playmaker Sends Warning To NFL

Dallas Cowboys tight end Jake Ferguson had a breakout campaign in 2023, and now, he is putting the rest of the NFL on notice heading into 2024.

“To me, I think I’m not even scratching my surface,” Ferguson said, via Todd Archer of ESPN. “There’s so many things that I want to get better at and I know I can get better at. We watch film every day of different games, even the practices we’re doing now and I’m like, ‘OK, I can get a lot better still.'”

Ferguson played in every game this past season, hauling in 71 receptions for 761 yards and five touchdowns. It was the most productive year by a Cowboys tight end in quite some time, and he has even bigger plans moving forward.

“In this league you can’t be complacent,” Ferguson said. “You’ve got to just keep going. You’ve got to keep getting better and that’s what I aim to do.”

The 25-year-old, who played his collegiate football at the University of Wisconsin, was selected by Dallas in the fourth round of the 2022 NFL Draft.

Ferguson didn’t make much of an impact during his rookie campaign, appearing in 16 contests and logging just 19 catches for 174 yards and a couple of scores.

Clearly, the Cowboys were not sure Ferguson would be much of a threat in their offense, as they then selected fellow tight end Luke Schoonmaker in the second round of the draft last year.

But Ferguson was so good in 2023 that Schoonmaker became a relative afterthought in Dallas’ aerial attack, with the University of Michigan product registering only eight grabs for 65 yards and a pair of touchdowns in his first season.

In spite of Ferguson’s impressive showing this past year, Cowboys tight ends coach Lunda Wells says that he needs to focus on doing it regularly in order to truly be great.

“The great ones play consistently on a high level every year throughout their careers,” Wells said. “The [Jason] Wittens of the world. The [Travis] Kelces of the world, so you want to be able to chase that consistency and play great every year. I think that might be one of the things he’s focusing on, ‘Hey, anybody can do it one year, but can I do it every year?'”

As of right now, Dallas does not have a ton of weapons in its passing game outside of Ferguson and top-flight wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, so Ferguson should be one of Dak Prescott’s top targets once again in 2024.