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Luke Schoonmaker is hurt. Again. The Dallas Cowboys second-round pick in the 2023 NFL draft has seen far too much of the training room since joining the NFL. Lingering injuries stunted his growth as a rookie, setting him behind pace and limiting him to 368 offensive snaps in 2023. And now he has a hamstring injury that will keep him out of OTAs.
The concern today is more of the same, injuries, may be setting him for more of the same, underwhelming performance, in 2024. For being called the safest pick of their 2023 draft class, Schoonmaker has sure fallen short of expectations thus far.
Cowboys TE Luke Schoonmaker has a hamstring injury that is expected to sideline him throughout OTAs. He underwent shoulder surgery this offseason. Hamstring now what is keeping him off field. He missed his 2023 rookie spring with foot injury.
— Michael Gehlken (@GehlkenNFL) May 22, 2024
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Last year’s class was heralded to be rich in tight end prospects. It was the perfect draft for a TE-needy team like Dallas who hoped to add one early. As luck would have it, a run on the TE position went down early in the second round and the Cowboys were faced with a dilemma: do they roll the dice and hope a player of proper value falls to them later, or do they toe the line of over-drafting and take a player while options were available?
As most fans know, Dallas went with Option B and drafted Schoonmaker, the top TE from Michigan, with their second-round pick. He projected as Day 3 prospect by many but came with a degree of stability as a prospect.
Schoonmaker didn’t hail from a flashy upstart program, nor did he come from proven passing powerhouse. He came from a run-heavy Big Ten team. He was a blocker first and foremost and beyond that he was generally unglamorous.
Luke Schoonmaker was drafted with pick 58 of round 2 in the 2023 draft class. He scored a 9.86 #RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 16 out of 1105 TE from 1987 to 2023. https://t.co/Ml2B0eOGKS pic.twitter.com/ItzfUA2Sa2
— Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) April 29, 2023
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Yet he tested well so the potential was there to become a solid pass-catcher down the road. But Schoonmaker was an older prospect, turning 25 in his rookie season, and therefore not someone drafted for his high ceiling, rather his high floor.
With his rookie season a bust, Schoonmaker looked to 2024 to show he was worth a second-round pick. It’s a situation that just suffered a setback with recent news a hamstring injury will be limiting him in OTAs. This on the heels of shoulder surgery soon after the offseason began.
For as upsetting as the news is, it’s better now than later. Schoonmaker is a smart player. He’s a focused player. He’s a player who just needs to execute. And that execution has to come in live action and the closest thing to live action before the regular season is training camp.
As long as Schoonmaker is good to go for Oxnard, CA, he’s in position to realize his potential as a top draft pick. The Cowboys are likely handling the situation cautiously because they, as much as anyone, want their TE2 ready to compete in training camp.
At the moment there’s nothing to worry about. As long as Schoonmaker is in position to compete when it matters, things should be fine. It’s only if he can’t make it back when people should start to worry. It’s then the TE2 role can really fall into question, and it’s then his future should fall into doubt.