Cowboys TE Michael Trigg Is Forcing His Way Into The Roster Fight

Can Michael Trigg overcome challenges and secure his spot as a key player for the Dallas Cowboys with his remarkable progress at training camp?

Michael Trigg has wasted no time making noise at Cowboys camp, but the biggest update on the former Baylor tight end isn’t another highlight catch.

It’s the work he’s putting in as a blocker.

Trigg arrived in Dallas as an undrafted free agent after the 2026 NFL Draft, a local college product with off-field concerns that pushed him down the board. Jerry Jones and Brian Schottenheimer still gave him a shot, and he’s making the most of it in Oxnard.

From the jump, the receiving ability has been obvious. He looks like a player who can push for the Cowboys’ No. 2 tight end job behind Jake Ferguson, and at the very least he has the tools to challenge Brevyn Spann-Ford for that role.

But an NFL tight end has to do more than run routes and catch passes, and that was always the question with Trigg. His blocking was a concern coming into camp, along with whether he’d embrace that part of the job at all. So while the pass game flashes have been easy to spot, the quieter progress in the run game may be what really helps his case.

On August 6, the play everyone was buzzing about was Trigg’s sliding grab from Joe Milton III to finish practice. It was the kind of sequence that shows off the raw talent that got Dallas interested in him in the first place. Still, 105.3 The Fan’s Zach Wolchuk had the more telling note from the day: "Looked better as a blocker today."

That matters. A tight end can get by with limited blocking only if he’s Brock Bowers, and Trigg isn’t in that category.

For him, the path to a roster spot runs through the less glamorous stuff. Camp videos have shown him drilling the basics of blocking and repeating the reps, and that kind of buy-in is exactly what he needs to keep his momentum going.

He’s already shown plenty as a receiver. His first touch in camp went for a touchdown, and he’s kept building chemistry with Milton III through touchdowns in team periods, contested catches and steady production in the offense. That’s the easy part, though.

The harder part is proving he can keep defenders off Dak Prescott or Javonte Williams. Dallas knows it.

Trigg knows it. And with Luke Schoonmaker’s future looking uncertain to this fanbase, Brevyn Spann-Ford still something of an unknown and Princeton Fant out with an ACL injury, there’s a real opening here.

If Wolchuk’s report is any indication, Trigg is taking advantage of it.

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