Getty Cowboys TE Peyton Hendershot (right)
As we wrap up an uneventful May for the Cowboys, part of an NFL offseason in which inaction has been the name of the game over at The Star, the team is still sitting on four open 90-man roster spots, possibly to be filled by veterans. There’s still room on board, then, when the whistles blow to open up training camp in Oxnard in two months.
However, even as the team still has clear holes to fill, what figures to be the actual roster—the 53 players who will break camp as active members of the Cowboys—is tightening up. While there are intriguing longshot names who could surprise in camp and land a role for the Cowboys, there is less and less wiggle room among the position units as we near the summer.
One of those units is tight end, where the Cowboys figure to keep only four players at most, if not just three. And if the team addresses deficiencies elsewhere by keeping only three tight ends, third-year veteran Peyton Hendershot, who has three starts and 25 games played to his credit, figures to be on the chopping block.
Cowboys’ Top 2 TEs Already Set
That’s the thinking at USA Today’s Cowboys Wire site, where an article this week tabbed Hendershot as one of the, “5 Cowboys facing uphill battles for roster spots in 2024.”
It makes some sense. Hendershot was undrafted in 2022 and is not going to leapfrog last year’s second-round pick, Luke Schoonmaker.
The leading man is Jake Ferguson, who had a breakout season in 2023 after having been a fourth-round pick out of Wisconsin in 2022. Ferguson had a shaky rookie season but showed himself worthy (and then some) of replacing veteran Dalton Schultz last season, with 71 catches for 761 yards and five touchdowns. Ferguson earned a Pro Bowl spot.
Schoonmaker played all 17 games but did not get much chance to produce offensively, making just eight catches on 15 targets. That was still better than Hendershot.
As Cowboys Wire noted: “Hendershot went from surprise feel-good story in 2022 to frustrating and regressive in 2023.
“After posting solid numbers as a rookie, the undrafted free agent only produced four receptions for 38 yards in his sophomore season with the Cowboys. Drops were particularly concerning with Hendershot dropping two out of seven targets.”
Peyton Hendershot Could Be Beaten Out by UDFA
The post at Cowboys Wire goes on to note Hendershot’s overall weakness as a blocker, which is a good reason he could get the axe from the team.
If the team wants a blocker to hand the third TE role, it is likely that Hendershot will be replaced by another undrafted young guy, tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford. Like Hendershot, dropped passes were an issue for Spann-Ford in his final season at Minnesota, but unlike Hendershot, Spann-Ford is 6-foot-7, 280 pounds and an excellent blocker.
Hendershot is a more traditional 6-foot-4 and 245 pounds.
Spann-Ford was guaranteed an eye-popping $245,000 by the Cowboys to get him to sign as a free agent, a pretty clear indication they don’t intend to lose him before the season starts.
Assuming he stays, along with Ferguson and Schoonmaker, Hendershot’s chances of staying with the Cowboys shrink up considerably.