Cowboys' Brian Schottenheimer Offers Returning Prospect 'Growing' Message: 'You're Getting Back!'

It has been a tough start to NFL life for Dallas Cowboys tight end John Stephens Jr., with two ACL injuries in his first two seasons, on the same knee, mind you, setting him back.

We have seen the potential oozing from Stephens Jr., but back-to-back injuries have seen him become the forgotten man in the tight end room. But now, with a little over a week in Oxnard, John is back on the practice field, but he has had a couple of drops that he otherwise would have hauled in.

And to that, head coach Brian Schottenheimer has a message for his young tight end.

“Hey, you're growing, you're getting back,” Schottenheimer said. “It's almost like going through a version of rehabilitation. You've done the rehab to get your body to where you can be out on the field and now you're running and your body's going so fast and you're like, "Oh man, I'm open, I'm going to catch this," and then you want to catch it and you want to turn up field and so you drop it.

“There's zero concerns about his ball skills. He's got elite ball skills, but you point out the great things he's doing. With guys like that, you always point out the things that they're doing really well, you're going to kick the rust off and don't worry about that. That goes a long way with these guys."

With the tight end room having Jake Ferguson, Luke Schoonmaker, Brevyn Spann-Ford and Stephens Jr., there is a lot of potential in Lunda Wells' unit.

But for Stephens Jr., it will be a slow burn as he gets back to trusting his body again, and as we know, the potential is there; it is just about getting back into the groove of things, because he was one player in each of the last two offseasons that had Cowboys fans excited.

Yes, there have been some drops, but that is part of John's journey back to where he hopes he can get on the field in 2025 and be a serviceable contributor.