2018 Fantasy Football Rookie Roundup: Dallas Cowboys

As we turn our attention to the NFC East, we first look to the rookie’s drafted by the Dallas Cowboys. They are America’s team but this is mostly because that’s how alphabetical order works. The Cowboys lost arguably their best receiving weapon since Terrell Owens in Dez Bryant, and one of the best tight ends of all time in Jason Witten this offseason. They bolstered their receiving corps somewhat but did little to address tight end outside of the draft. How will the guys they drafted to fantasy football eligible positions fare in 2018? We take a look below.

 

Michael Gallup, Wide Receiver, Round Three
I love Michael Gallup. He’s the type of receiver that I adore watching. Gallup is a great route runner and he has monstrous vice grips for hands. He also uses these hands to frequently fight off opposing defensive backs to make himself open, even if he isn’t. He can also take a massive hit and pop right back up, something he did quite often in college. His lack of top-end speed was on display in college, as he was frequently overthrown (this seems to mostly be quarterback inaccuracy).

He’s twenty pounds lighter than Anquan Boldin at the same height, but the way he plays reminds me a ton of Boldin. He fights for every inch that he gets on the field, and he never seems satisfied with the yardage and carnage left in his wake. I’m not alone in that evaluation, as his college head coach, Mike Bobo (Hall of Fame name) made the same comparison. He’s a great all-around athlete and all-around receiver. His situation isn’t half-bad, either.

Michael Gallup is in one of the best fantasy football situations out of any rookie wide receiver in 2018. The Dallas Cowboys are short two of their stalwart pass catchers of the past half-decade, with Dez & Witten accounting for over 43% of the target share last season. That has to go somewhere in 2018 and call me skeptical that free acquisition Allen Hurns is going to suck them all up. Gallup will become Dak’s go-to target in this offense, with a complete lack of talented receiving weapons around him.

Gallup is also going for a song, as the 162nd player off the board per FantasyPros.com average draft position, and fifty-five wide receivers going ahead of him. He is going to be a potential league-winner in 2018 at that price, especially in PPR leagues. Make sure you have him on your roster.

TALENT:
OPPORTUNITY:
2018 OUTLOOK:

 

Dalton Schultz, Tight End, Round Four
I watched more Dalton Schultz tape than any other player for this article. Why? I watched about 95% cutups of him blocking for four or five plays, then running a fully covered route, then him getting open for a few yard gain, then back to block for a million more snaps. Despite being called the most complete tight end at Stanford by coaches, I’m not bullish on his 2018 prospects. His routes are okay and he’s a big ol’ boy. He has an outside chance to lead rookie tight ends in touchdowns. Very outside; it’ll require a lot of injuries and a fluke three TD game on his part.

More than likely, however, those scores are going to Zeke. That’s the primary beneficiary of Schultz’s addition to America’s Team. He’ll be a great lead blocker for Elliott, who might get an extra five or six yards a game out of it. I don’t think the Cowboys plan on plug-and-playing a blocking tight end into the Jason Witten role. He’s a classic all-around tight end that never does anything valuable for fantasy football outside of people who take the leap on a random GPP punt play in a great matchup. He gets extra credit on his talent evaluation for blocking, but this man should be nowhere near your fantasy football roster in 2018.

TALENT:
OPPORTUNITY:
2018 OUTLOOK:

 

Mike White, Quarterback, Round Five
Mike White is the classic big statue quarterback with a massive arm. The only problem is Mike White is blind as a bat in the pocket and moves with the urgency and talent of a half-awake sloth. He’s the type of guy who talent evaluators look at and see a classic statuesque quarterback instead of Zach Mettenberger. If Dak goes down, the Cowboys can be serviceable with White, but he is nothing to write home about.

TALENT:
OPPORTUNITY:
2018 OUTLOOK:

 

Bo Scarbrough, Running Back, Round Seven
Scarbrough’s tape left me absolutely perplexed. He looked like a big, strong fast running back in 2016. He runs kind of upright without a lot of wiggle, but he ran fast and he ran hard. 2017 instead saw Scarbrough just repeatedly succumbing to tacklers at the line of scrimmage, and he showed no burst. If something went wrong at the line, he laid down faster than Brett Favre did for Michael Strahan. He’ll be buried in the depth chart, and it’s likely the Cowboys took a flier on him to see if they could return some of that 2016 beauty they saw on tape.

Right now, he’s the third running back in the pecking order, at best, behind Zeke Elliott,  Rod Smith and Tavon Austin in Dallas. If he gets the job out of camp as Zeke’s backup, it means (1) he looks more like 2016 than 2017 and (2) he’s worth a late round stash if you are the type of person who is physically incapable of not handcuffing their first-round pick.

TALENT:
OPPORTUNITY: 
2018 OUTLOOK: (unless we lose Zeke Elliott)

About Jeff Krisko

You can follow me on twitter, @jeffkrisko for the same lukewarm takes you read here.

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