Source: Dallas Cowboys to use franchise tag on Dalton Schultz after TE's career-best season

FRISCO, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys will place the franchise tag on tight end Dalton Schultz, a source told ESPN.

The franchise tender for tight ends is $10.391 million, according to a memo obtained by ESPN. The Cowboys are already projected to be around $20 million over the 2022 salary cap and once the tag is officially in place, they would have to clear more space.

But the Cowboys did not want to be in a position to lose Schultz, who had career highs in receptions (78), yards (808) and touchdowns (8) last season.

With the franchise tag, a team could still sign Schultz as a free agent but would have to give up two first-round picks or come up with another package to entice the Cowboys to agree to a trade. The Cowboys and Schultz have until July 15 to work out a long-term deal or else he would have to play the season on the franchise tag.

«Dalton Schultz has played a tremendous amount of football for us the last two years and has been extremely productive and he's a part of everything,» coach Mike McCarthy said last week from the NFL Scouting Combine.

A fourth-round pick in 2018, Schultz had 13 catches in his first two seasons, however in 2020 and '21, he had 141 catches for 1,423 yards and 12 touchdowns. In 2021, he joined Jason Witten as the second tight end in team history with at least 70 catches and 800 yards in a season as he became one of Dak Prescott's trusted targets.

Schultz is the seventh player the Cowboys have ever used the franchise tag on. In 2020, Prescott played under the $31.4 million tag and he was tagged again in 2021, however, the Cowboys signed him to a four-year, $160 million deal last March. In 2018 and '19, the Cowboys used the tag on defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence, however, they reached a