Dallas Cowboys Tight End Princeton Fant Out For Season With Torn ACL, Partial MCL Tear

OXNARD, Calif. — Dallas Cowboys tight end Princeton Fant will miss the 2026 season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said Tuesday.

Fant also partially tore the medial collateral ligament in the same knee.

The injury came Monday at River Ridge Playing Fields during the first padded practice of training camp. On a run play in a team period, Fant was setting up a block when he got driven backward into running back Israel Abanikanda, and the contact caught him knee-on-knee. Fant was walked off the field with help before being carted to the locker room.

Surgery is a few weeks out. Schottenheimer said the Cowboys are waiting for the MCL to calm down before Fant goes under the knife.

“Really disappointed for him, for everything that he’s put into this,” Schottenheimer said. “Obviously he was very disappointed. But I told him, ‘Hey look, your story’s far from over.’ He’s been through this injury before, and the doctors feel really good about the chance for him making a full recovery.”

The earlier injury Schottenheimer referenced dates to Fant’s time at La Vergne High School in Tennessee. Fant tore an ACL during spring practice following his sophomore year and lost his junior season. A second surgery cost him most of his senior year.

Princeton Fant’s Four Seasons In Dallas

Fant went undrafted out of Tennessee in 2023 after a six-year run in Knoxville that began at running back before he moved to tight end. He has appeared in 11 games across three seasons in Dallas, almost entirely on special teams. Fant has taken 14 offensive snaps in his NFL career, and none of them came last year.

Last season amounted to one appearance. Dallas elevated Fant from the practice squad for the Week 9 Monday night game at Arizona, where he played 11 special teams snaps in a 27-17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals.

The Cowboys released Fant in January. They brought him back March 13 on a two-year, $2,125,000 contract, with a base salary and cap hit of $1,005,000 for 2026.

Fant is the cousin of New Orleans Saints tight end Noah Fant, who signed with New Orleans in March. The Cowboys host a joint practice with the Saints in Oxnard on Aug. 18.

Dallas Cowboys Tight End Room Behind Jake Ferguson

Dallas still has Jake Ferguson, Luke Schoonmaker, Brevyn Spann-Ford, Michael Trigg, and DJ Rogers at the position.

Ferguson signed a four-year, $50 million extension in July 2025 and then caught 82 passes for 600 yards and 8 touchdowns across all 17 games. He has 231 receptions for 2,029 yards in 64 career games.

Schoonmaker, the 58th overall pick in 2023, caught 14 of his 23 targets for 132 yards and no touchdowns in 17 games last season. He is entering the final year of his rookie contract and turns 28 in September.

Spann-Ford finished 2025 with 9 receptions for 90 yards in 17 games. He has 18 catches for 178 yards and 1 touchdown over 34 career games since signing with Dallas as an undrafted free agent in 2024.

Trigg and Rogers both arrived this spring as undrafted rookies. Trigg spent his final two college seasons at Baylor and caught 50 passes for 694 yards and 6 touchdowns in 2025, earning First-Team All-Big 12 honors and a spot among the three John Mackey Award finalists. Dallas gave him $280,000 in guaranteed money, the largest guarantee in its undrafted class, matched only by Rogers. Rogers spent five years at TCU and set career highs as a redshirt senior with 34 catches for 319 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Dallas is back on the practice field Thursday at 1:45 p.m. CT. The Cowboys open the preseason Saturday, Aug. 15 at Lumen Field against the Seattle Seahawks, with kickoff set for 7 p.m. CT on CBS Texas locally and NFL Network nationally.