Rowdy
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- Mar 18, 2019
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It took an unfortunate Week 1 season-ending injury to Blake Jarwin for Dalton Schultz to get his opportunity. After only seven starts and 417 offensive snaps his first two seasons, Schultz made the most of his third season.
Schultz, who had 13 catches for 122 yards in his career before last season, broke out with 63 catches for 615 yards and four touchdowns in 2020.
“It definitely helps with my confidence,” Schultz said. “But I say that, and I had a lot of confidence going into last year before any of those catches in those games happened. If anything, I just think it kind of springboarded my confidence in myself and continued to lead me to focus even more on my techniques and hone in on that work with Dak [Prescott] and getting the little nuances down in certain coverages and different routes. So I think it opened the door to a whole new level of preparation, and I’m excited to continue to go forth in my preparation this year.”
Schultz is entering the final year of his rookie deal, scheduled to make a base salary of $2.183 million. A big season could get him a big deal with the Cowboys or with another team in free agency next spring.
“Whether it’s a contract year or not, I’ve got to improve regardless,” Schultz said. “I don’t treat this as like, ‘OK, this is the one year that I’ve got to ball out.’ No, I treat it like I treated last year. I’ve got to get better day to day. I’ve got to do the same things. We have this saying that I learned in college; it’s called the law of the price tag. You’ve got to make deposits on it day to day. The price never decreases. It only increases, and it has to be paid in full at all times. I’m continuing to do that.
“You’ve got to be better than you were the day before, and you’ve got to put more in than you did the day before. I think that’s one of the keys to having a long career, and that’s something that I hope to do. So I continue to approach each year like that.”
Dalton said he will participate in the Tight End University that will take place this summer in Nashville. Kansas City’s Travis Kelce, San Francisco’s George Kittle and recently retired Greg Olsen are spearheading the summit for players at the position.