More likely to happen for the Cowboys in 2020: A tight end versus a defensive end

While we wait for the 2020 season to finally arrive, let’s do some hypothetical stats battles between Cowboys players. Today we pit a tight end, Blake Jarwin, versus a defensive end, Aldon Smith.

The stats battle: 650 yards for Blake Jarwin vs. seven sacks for Aldon Smith

The Jarwin file:

In Blake Jarwin’s career, he has 672 total receiving yards, so asking him to get 650 in a single year seems like a steep climb. But this year, Jarwin should be the clear-cut starter and will likely see most of the receiving targets for a tight end. Last year, the first in Kellen Moore’s offense, the tight end position (Jason Witten/Jarwin) collected 894 yards for the season. Certainly Jarwin will get the lion’s share of that in 2019.

The problem for Jarwin is that he has to share targets with Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup, CeeDee Lamb, and to a lesser extent Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard. That’s a lot of mouths to feed. The last time a Cowboys tight end went over 650 yards receiving in a season was Jason Witten back in 2016. We think Jarwin should bloom as a receiver now that he’s the man, but can he get to 650 yards in this offense?

The Smith file:

On talent alone, Aldon Smith should easily be able to collect seven sacks in a season. Considering he has years when he got 19.5 sacks, and 14 sacks, the talent part isn’t the issue. Heck, in 2013 he only started eight games and had 8.5 sacks. So seven sacks is a modest number when it comes to superstar defensive ends, but Smith has plenty of challenges to overcome. And let’s not forget, DeMarcus Lawrence only got five sacks last year.

Working against Smith are a multitude of things. One is staying out of trouble. We can’t forget that one mistake could sideline him again. Next up, we don’t know what kind of football shape he’ll be in and how much his skills have diminished while away from the game. We also don’t know how much playing time he’ll get. Will he be the starter or will he share time with Randy Gregory and/or Tyrone Crawford? There are a lot of unknowns on the way to seven sacks in 2020 for Aldon Smith.

So who ya got? Jarwin’s 650 yards or Smith’s seven sacks?