The postseason was a dud for the Dallas Cowboys, but there’s no denying that Texas’ oldest NFL franchise thrived on the gridiron during the regular season. They would pay well if legal, regulated Texas sports betting existed.
Dallas’ success (a 12-5 season and the NFC East title) was due in no small part to young players such as second-year tight end Jake Ferguson. He had 71 catches for 761 yards and five touchdowns this season and had an approximate value of 9 in 17 games.
Ferguson did all of this on the second year of his rookie contract. The fourth-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft out of Wisconsin had a salary cap hit of $1,046,221 in 2023. He averaged $1,375 per receiving yard this season – but how does that compare as a value leaguewide? To figure that out, BetTexas.com – where we keep pace with developments about possible Texas sportsbook apps in the future – calculated the cap dollars per receiving yard for tight ends in the 2023-24 season, thanks to Pro-Football-Reference.com statistics. We then compared all players to finish this list of 10 best-value TEs this season (blocking prowess was not included in these calculations).
Best Value NFL Tight Ends In 2023-24 Season
Cowboys' Jake Ferguson Leads TE Pack
Ferguson’s 761 receiving yards on a $1,046,221 cap figure led to a dollars-per-yard number of $1,375. That made him the most value-driven tight end in the league in 2023-24, edging out Tanner Hudson of the Cincinnati Bengals ($1,484 per catch), according to Pro-Football-Reference.com figures.
Trey McBride of the Arizona Cardinals ($1,548 cap hit per catch), Chig Okonkwo of the Tennessee Titans ($1,887) and Sam LaPorta of the Detroit Lions ($1,936) rounded out the top five.
When broken down by receiving yards alone, Ferguson’s 761 ranked third among the top 10 best values, behind McBride’s 925 and LaPorta’s 889. But both of those players had a costlier cap hit than the second-year Cowboys tight end.
Super Bowl 2024 Odds
The Cowboys once again have missed out on the Super Bowl. This year‘s game, set for Feb. 11 in Las Vegas, is between the San Francisco 49ers and the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs. The Niners are a 2-point favorite according to the Caesars Sportsbook to dethrone the Chiefs.
On the moneyline at Caesars, San Francisco is a -130 favorite with Kansas City as a slight underdog at +110. The over/under is 47.5 points. Online sportsbooks also offer prop bets by the hundreds for the Super Bowl but Texas residents will have to go elsewhere to wager on them legally.
