Every year an NFL team has a few players along the roster that over or underachieve. Players fall off a cliff talent-wise, while others sharpen their skills like one does a knife. Which Dallas Cowboys players should be earmarked as potential breakout candidates in 2023?
Dallas Cowboys Breakout Candidates
Dallas added veteran players in Brandin Cooks and Stephon Gilmore, who should provide an uptick in production in 2023 on both sides of the ball relative to what they’re replacing. However, to take the next step and truly become one of the league’s best teams, they’ll need a few heroes to emerge at a few key positions.
Not all of these players will break out. And maybe one or two players not even on the list have a chance to produce at a high level. But these are the five best chances on the roster.
OL Tyler Smith
Tyler Smith may be a really good offensive tackle someday, but if the Cowboys could keep him focused and operating at left guard, he could become one of the more dominant blockers in the league at the position.
Like many things, Smith’s year at offensive tackle after starting the season playing guard has taken on a life of its own. Smith was good, but certainly not to a level that should preclude the Cowboys from putting together the best starting five they can on the offensive line. That best five includes Smith playing left guard, with Tyron Smith at left tackle and Terence Steele at right tackle.
Obviously, this is all health-dependent. Tyron will almost certainly miss a significant portion of the season. That is an unfortunate inevitability at this point. However, he is still too good when he is on the field to make him a backup. And trying to slide Steele to left guard is a bad decision.
If Smith can hold down the left guard role, we could see him play at a level that makes him a Pro Bowler in Year 2. He’s an incredibly strong run blocker and has outstanding athleticism on the interior.
CB DaRon Bland
Adding Gilmore to the roster could be a great thing for DaRon Bland or a very bad thing for the young cornerback. He will surely be tested by opposing passers, given the ball-hawking reputation of Trevon Diggs and the sticky nature of Gilmore.
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Teams will try and pick on Bland, but that could be a poor decision. Despite playing shy of 600 defensive snaps as a rookie, the fifth-round pick had five INTs. He possesses surprisingly good recovery speed from the slot and has impressive ball skills.
EDGE Sam Williams
Sam Williams is a 260-pound defensive end who ran a faster 40 than Bland did as a 197-pound cornerback.
Williams found a way to be productive as a rookie despite being cookie dough. An offseason of working on his craft as a professional pass rusher could pay huge dividends for the Cowboys in 2023.
And while he won’t find himself in the starting lineup if Micah Parsons and Tank Lawrence are both healthy, that only helps his potential pass-rushing production because he’ll be fresh and in situations where Dan Quinn can dial up games on the defensive line.
“I also got into boxing. These hands are fixing to get certified,” Williams joked. “Coach AD [Aden Durde], he put me on to one of his guys. [Boxing helps my] hands, hand quickness, reaction, hand/eye coordination, the way you move, the way you defend. It’s all going to help better my skills.”
Returner KaVontae Turpin
It feels impossible that KaVontae Turpin can go another season without housing at least one return. He is an absolute blur with the ball in his hands, and there were multiple points last season where it looked like he was going to break away and just barely missed out on an opportunity.
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At some point, it’s all going to come together for the speedy receiver, and he’ll make an All-Pro team as a returner.
“You go back to his college days, and clearly, in my opinion, he was the best player I saw in the USFL coming out,” Mike McCarthy told Clarence Hill. “I’ve been so impressed with him since Day 1. He got here the first day, picked the offense up, and jumped right in there. He’s very dynamic on special teams.”
TE Luke Schoonmaker
Honestly, this one takes a bit of imagination. However, as a 25-year-old rookie TE with outstanding athleticism and seam-stretching ability, Luke Schoonmaker’s box-score production may only tell one part of the story.
Dak Prescott loves attacking the middle of the field, particularly up the seam. If Schoonmaker can prove to be an explosive player in that role, he could see a few targets in the intermediate and deep areas of the field.
The Cowboys also don’t need to start the second-round pick because Jake Ferguson and Peyton Hendershot are both good players, so he could end up being a mismatch weapon in 12-personnel groupings to take advantage of an extra linebacker on the field.