ARLINGTON, Texas – Don't look too hard for the next fullback of the Dallas Cowboys – there might not be one.
Cowboys coach Jason Garrett is rarely one to speak in absolutes regarding his team. But two days before the Cowboys report to training camp, he didn't give the impression he's looking to add a new fullback after the release of Lawrence Vickers last week.
Vickers sat out the duration of team OTA's and minicamp this spring following an offseason surgery on his back. In his place the Cowboys experimented heavily with extra tight end sets, largely aided by the June acquisition of Dante Rosario – who has experience as an H-Back blocker.
"That's the way we operated throughout the offseason," Garrett said. "Lawrence wasn't available to us because of an injury, and we just liked how it looked and how it felt."
That may answer a question or two about how the Cowboys will organize their final 53-man roster in about a month and a half. Adding Rosario and second-round draft pick Gavin Escobar to the mix gives Dallas a whopping six tight ends on the current roster.
But if the front office doesn't seek a replacement fullback, the cut down at that position might not be as extreme as once expected. [embedded_ad]
This shouldn't necessarily come as a surprise, as both Garrett and owner/general manager Jerry Jones have talked often about their desire to implement multiple tight end sets frequently – even moreso after the selection of Escobar in the NFL draft.
"There's no guarantee that we'll continue in that mode, but we feel good about the four, five, six tight ends we have on our roster right now, how they can compete and how the whole thing looked," Garrett said. "We'll play that out through training camp and make the best decision for our team."
That leaves room for a change of course in the future. But for the time being it seems the Cowboys are content to make do with their plethora of tight ends.
