FRISCO, Texas — Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator Klayton Adams said Thursday that the staff talked with tight end Jake Ferguson this offseason about knowing when to go down rather than risk the football, after Ferguson fumbled seven times over the last two seasons.
All seven of Ferguson’s career fumbles have come in the last two seasons, four in 2024 and three in 2025, according to Pro Football Reference. Dallas opens the season Sunday against the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium. Kickoff is 7:20 p.m. CT on NBC.
The conversation with Ferguson started last season, when some of those fumbles were happening, Adams said.
“I think one of the things that we talked about in the offseason with it, and even last year when some of those things were happening, is just knowing the situation,” Adams said. “If it’s third-and-18 and you catch the ball for a plus-2 gain, at some point you’re going to probably want to get down rather than risk the football.”
Jake Ferguson Coming Off His Second Pro Bowl Season
In 2025, Ferguson caught 82 passes for 600 yards and eight touchdowns in 17 games. The catches and touchdowns were career highs, and he made his second Pro Bowl. He averaged 7.3 yards per catch.
A year earlier, he had 59 catches for 494 yards and no touchdowns in 14 games. In 2023, he caught 71 passes for 761 yards and five touchdowns and made his first Pro Bowl. Dallas drafted Ferguson in the fourth round out of Wisconsin in 2022, 129th overall. He signed a four-year extension before the 2025 season. This month, Dallas restructured his contract as one of three restructures that created more than $19 million in cap space.
Ferguson did not play in any of Dallas’ three preseason games. In the wild-card loss to the Green Bay Packers after the 2023 season, he caught 10 passes for 93 yards and three touchdowns.
Brevyn Spann-Ford’s Role With the Cowboys Tight Ends
Behind Ferguson, Brevyn Spann-Ford has a role on offense as a blocker and on special teams. All of the Cowboys’ tight ends chip for the tackles in pass protection, Adams said.
“I think you probably do it through different personnel groupings, right?” Adams explained. “And so if you’re in 12 personnel, there’s all sorts of things that you can do in the pass game and in the run game that aren’t necessarily, is this guy going to be blocking?
“And really when you’re talking about pass protection and pass protection help, where those guys are chipping for the tackles, we do that with all of our tight ends,” Adams continued. “So it’s not necessarily that you would put him in to do that, just because all those guys are capable of doing that, because it’s not really a one-on-one block.”
Spann-Ford signed with Dallas as an undrafted free agent out of Minnesota on April 30, 2024. Last season, he played in all 17 games and caught nine passes for 90 yards. His first career touchdown came against the Eagles at AT&T Stadium. On special teams, he made 20 tackles, mostly on kickoff coverage.
Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer is all about winning on special teams, too, according to special teams coordinator Nick Sorensen.
“We will monitor it going forward,” Sorensen said. “Obviously, you’re always looking at rep counts and stuff, but he’s such a huge part of what we do on special teams. And Schotty, he’s all about us winning on special teams also. We use him in a smart way anyway, I think.
“But what he does on punt and kickoff for us, especially last year, the jump he took to be really one of the top tacklers in the league,” Sorensen added. “We’ll be smart when we can, but we definitely need him.”
Spann-Ford is 6-foot-6 and 265 pounds. In two seasons, he has 18 catches for 178 yards and one touchdown in 34 games.
The Giants went 4-13 last season. The Cowboys beat them 40-37 at AT&T Stadium in Week 2 and lost the finale at MetLife, 34-17, on Jan. 4.
