Tight End Dalton Schultz Adds Evidence to Slowik's Legitimacy

The veteran tight end had high praise for the first-year offensive coordinator

Dalton Schultz got me excited about offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik on Thursday.

The former Cowboys tight end talked a lot about the offense and the first-year coordinator. The praise was lofty.

“For me, being somewhere and having a mastery of an offense on my fifth year I wish I would have learned it this way year one,” Schultz told SportsRadio 610’s "In the Loop". “Because I feel like I would have gotten to where I was, year five in that offense, much quicker.”

Schultz called Slowik a great teacher. He explained the depth Slowik goes into helping the offense understand all aspects of a play. Schultz explained Slowik’s “peeling it back” where it is no longer just the play, but why the play is run, how it should be run, the defense they expect to beat with it, and why a player is lined up a particular way.

Slowik’s job and how he performs is one of the most important aspects of this team.

He is charged with stewarding a rookie quarterback through the instillation of the offense, while also teaching this to dozens of other players on the offense. Then, on gameday, he has to execute the playcalling duties for the team which is something he has never done.

So when Dalton Schultz, who has played on the top offense in the NFL twice in his career, explains he wishes Bobby Slowik had been his coach because he would have been better off, I get pretty pumped about the potential despite the inexperience.

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Another aspect to like about Slowik is he fits the mold of the type of person who is successful in the NFL these days on offense.

The young mind who coached under another young offensive genius is the name of the game in the NFL. Andy Reids don’t become available very often, but teams are constantly trying to find the next one.

Slowik is a disciple of San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan who saw his former offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel take over the Miami Dolphins and coach the sixth-best offense in football. Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay’s former offensive coordinator Kevin O'Connell coached the Minnesota Vikings to the seventh-best offense in football.

I don’t want it to sound like it is an easy endeavor because Slowik is good in the classroom and he’s the “next” young guy from the offensive genius tree. Schultz explained a lot of the challenges of the offense.

“I’d say, this scheme specifically, it’s just a lot,” he said. “There’s just a lot of volume, period. Everybody, top to bottom. There’s a lot of different ways that we can run stuff, and then there’s ways you can flip those and run it the other way. I think, just in terms of sheer volume, it’s just a lot, and so I think that’s the biggest challenge in my mind, and then again just getting the timing, the rhythm, the verbiage down.”

There’s lots of work to do still. We’ve all heard a teacher in our lifetime explain they believe the semester is too short, but they’ll get the material in. Well, if Dalton Schultz is indeed correct and Bobby Slowik is as good as he says, the students, if you will, should have good grades.

Enjoy the YouTube live stream from last night below!