The tight end position group made a return to Oklahoma State’s roster last season, and 2024 appears to be an intriguing Year 2 for the room.
We’ll continue our three offseason questions series with a look at the Cowboys’ tight ends.
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1. Will Tight Ends’ Use in the Passing Attack See an Uptick?
Some had gripes that Jelani Woods wasn’t being used in the passing attack enough back in his day, but in his final three seasons with the program, Woods had 361 receiving yards and four receiving touchdowns. In the past three seasons, OSU’s leading tight end (and/or Cowboy Back) combined to have 289 yards and one touchdown.
That comes with some caveats — the biggest being philosophy. OSU made a concerted effort to reinitiate the group last season, with Josiah Johnson having the best year from a tight end (and/or Cowboy Back) in some time. In the two years before Johnson’s arrival, the Cowboy Back position group was moreso used as an extra blocker. That’s totally fine, as that philosophy helped the Cowboys to a Fiesta Bowl win in 2021. But it sometimes felt like it got to a point where if OSU wasn’t going to throw the ball to a Cowboy Back, why not just put an extra offensive lineman out there?
The Cowboys flirted with using Blaine Green as a traditional tight end during his time with the program, but that transition was hampered with injury struggles and never quite got off the ground.
But with the Cowboy Back moniker being put to pasture, it seems as if the Pokes have more of a willingness to recruit traditional, inline-type bodies. With as good as the Cowboys’ receiving corps. is and has been, the tight ends don’t have to carry a huge load in the passing attack, but in Year 2 of the tight end-fullback split, I’m interested to see if the group’s use in the passing game continues to rise.
2. How Much Different Will Tyler Foster Be from Josiah Johnson?
Along those same lines, Johnson was an excellent starting point for the Cowboys’ reintroduction to the position, and from a wide view, he has a lot of similarities to Tyler Foster, who the Pokes brought in this offseason.
Both came from smaller programs — Johnson from UMass and Foster from Ohio. Both entered the program on their final season of college eligibility. In Johnson’s last two years at UMass, he had 278 receiving yards and three touchdowns. In his last two years at Ohio, Foster had 396 receiving yards and four touchdowns. Johnson was listed at 6-foot-5, 235 pounds. Foster, this spring, was tabbed at 6-6, 245 pounds.
So basically, I’m asking just how tall Foster will stand on Johnson’s shoulders, so to speak, to push the position group forward. If Foster could have a 166-yard, one-touchdown year like Johnson, that’d be great. If he could have 250 receiving yards and two touchdowns, that’d be outstanding.
With that being said, there are plenty of capable mouths to feed on this Cowboy offense — Ollie Gordon, Brennan Presley, De’Zhaun Stribling and Rashod Owens, just to name a few. And Foster’s work as a blocker will be equally, if not more important than if he has 250 receiving yards, but it’d be cool to see the Cowboys have a legit threat in the tight end spot again.
3. How Soon Will Josh Ford Get on the Field?
Former Stillwater tight end Josh Ford garnered plenty of praise from Mike Gundy this spring after enrolling early.
Gundy said Ford could hold his own from a physical standpoint, and it’s easy to see why with Ford listed at 6-foot-6, 240 pounds in a spring that should’ve been his senior year as a high schooler.
Ford was primarily used a road grader for Stillwater High the past few years (just take a look at this highlights below), but he was also capable in the passing game, catching 22 passes for 245 yards and three touchdowns as a senior.
If he is able to get some experience as a freshman, it would bode well for the long-term position of the room, especially considering Johnson and Foster were both one-year rentals via the portal. Having a guy that could develop in the system could prove major for the health of the position group in two or three years.
Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog.