Jake Ferguson seems to be in store for a big season.

The Dallas Cowboys took tight end Jake Ferguson in the fourth round in 2022 as a backup to Dalton Schultz. There were flashes in his limited opportunities that first season as he produced two touchdowns and 174 yards on 19 receptions.

By his second year, Schultz was gone, and the keys to the tight end room were placed in his hands. He responded with a breakout campaign with 71 catches for 761 yards and five touchdowns, placing himself firmly in the upper level of the hierarchy at his position.

Ferguson is expected to take a big step forward in his career as he begins his third season. This expectation comes not only from the Cowboys’ fan base and the media, but also from Ferguson himself.

According to the team’s official website, Ferguson stated, “I need to make that exact same jump [as last year], but make it even bigger. In this league, you can’t get complacent. You’ve got to keep getting better, and that’s what I intend to do.

We’ve got great vets in our facility — Brandin Cooks and Dak Prescott — and they teach you how to take care of your body and how to take care of your mind as you start to get older.

“At the age of 25, I realize that I’m getting older relative to a football player. I need to start taking those steps and improve annually. Excellent tight end play has a long history in Dallas. Hall of Famer Mike Ditka was a part of the Cowboys’ inaugural Super Bowl team and spent four seasons (1969–1972) as a player.

Then there’s the future Hall of Famer, Jason Witten, who took the standard to a new level for what a tight end should be in Dallas, setting records for receptions (1,228), yards (13,046), and touchdowns (74). In the 1990s, Jay Novacek was the tight end position’s head coach during their run of three Super Bowl titles in four years.

Ferguson will need to put in a lot of constant effort and attention to get to that level, as Cowboys tight end coach Lunda Wells noted. Wells questioned, ”

He had a good year last year, but can you do it again?” “You can go down the list and find legends and outstanding players who have consistently performed year after year: Tony Gonzalez, Travis Kelce, Jason Witten, and so on. You cannot be a one-hit wonder or a one-and-done because those things fade away.

If you wanna be great, you’ve gotta do it every year, consistently, and I think that’s the challenge he understands. And that’s the best thing: he understands that. … [He] set the standard last year, now let’s make sure we do it even better, like the great ones do.”

Ferguson was able to take the next step in 2023 due to working so close with Wells on all the nuances of playing tight end. If he wants to exceed what he did last season, which he said he does, he’ll need to keep that same work ethic.

Ferguson stated in May, “I think it’s just my consistency, you know, with my prep.” “Coach Wells and I, in my opinion, do an excellent job of, you know, staying together after practice to work on the little things when it’s special teams time or there isn’t enough time in a practice.

Tracking the ball with your eyes, watching the ball hit your hands, your footwork, all the little things, both in the receiving and the blocking game. And then also off the field stuff. Just making sure my focus was purely on football, and I think that helped me focus a lot more on what I was doing each game and how to get better every time.”

Ferguson is going to have another successful year in 2024, if history is any guide.