FRISCO, TX — It was a convincing win for the Dallas Cowboys over the Cleveland Browns in Week 1, thumping them to the tune of 33-17 at Huntington Bank Stadium, and the former came away mostly whole in the process — key word being “mostly”. They did lose Pro Bowl tight end Jake Ferguson to a knee injury in the third quarter, and he did not return to the contest.
He’d finish with 15 yards on three catches.
Ferguson was seen walking out of the locker room following the game without anyone’s aid, and without a knee brace or crutches, having only an ice pack taped to his knee. Initial tests showed his ACL was intact, but an MRI was scheduled for Monday morning in Dallas.
The news was good, as Ferguson noted on social media.
“God is good!” he wrote.
Ferguson suffered only an MCL sprain during the offending tackle, and the injury is far from season-ending. In fact, Mike McCarthy said on Monday that Ferguson would be working with the “return to play” group this week in practice.
Speaking after the game to media, All-Pro quarterback Dak Prescott spoke to Ferguson’s status and value to the offense.
“Not even going to begin to talk about what would we miss, [because]I think we’ve dodged a big one,” said Prescott. “… Just talking to him, he gave me a lot of confidence that he’ll be okay, and he’ll be able to respond. And whether it’s nothing or whether it’s a couple of weeks, I know that, yeah, I can’t even think about what we would miss from that guy.
“Just his mentality, what he brings to the game I where we’ve grown and our connection. We’ll be fine. He’ll be fine.”
Prescott’s words are ringing true only hours later, and the Cowboys can exhale a collective sigh of relief at the news, though they’ll need to adapt in the meantime.
That adaptation will largely feature undrafted rookie tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford and second-year talent John Stephens Jr. taking the bulk of the work that would’ve otherwise gone to Ferguson, with aid in that arena from former second-round pick Luke Schoonmaker; and Princeton Fant will likely be elevated from the practice squad on gamedays as a helping hand for tight ends coach Lunda Wells.
Stephens was ruled out of the season opener with a hamstring injury though, so he’ll need to heal up to be able to contribute in what will eventually be his NFL debut after returning from a torn ACL suffered as a rookie in 2023.
While Schoonmaker does have the ability to catch the football, his bread-and-butter comes by way of his blocking, whereas Spann-Ford and Stephens are the inverse: they make their living off of being able to catch the ball and make life difficult for smaller linebackers and nickel corners due to their athleticism.
Ferguson is coming off of a breakout season and his type of production won’t be easy to replace, but there is enough talent behind him, thanks to the Cowboys not risking Spann-Ford to waivers, to supplement a chunk of it.
