Matt

Waletzko

Waletzko suffered a left shoulder subluxation in Thursday’s practice for the “third time in a year.” The No. 155 overall pick of the draft, Waletzko now requires surgery. Although Waletzko had yet to play a regular season snap, this further thins depth the Cowboys already didn’t really have along their offensive line.

Dallas used its fifth-round pick from Cleveland in the Amari Cooper trade to draft Waletzko, a three-year FCS starter with 95th-percentile size and athletic scores. Waletzko dominated the MVFC, allowing three sacks in 28 starts, and is expected to remain at tackle in the NFL, giving the Cowboys depth behind injury-prone LT Tyron Smith, who’s missed 20 games the past two seasons. Waletzko seems likely to open 2022 in a swing role as a backup to Smith and hedge to Terence Steele after Steele replaced La’El Collins as the team’s starting right tackle last season.

Waletzko (6'8/312) made 28 starts at left tackle for North Dakota, making first-team All-MVFC in 2021 while also serving as a team captain. His 79.5 PFF rating over the past two years combined speaks to his top play. The first thing that jumps out with Waletzko is his sheer size. He’s 6-foot-8 with appropriately long arms to match (above 95th-percentile in height and wingspan), which is eminently valuable as an offensive lineman. With those long arms comes immense upper-body strength, and more often than not he wins with those two things alone. The lower body is where concerns start to show, as he lacks power and good footwork. As much as length helps, he is rarely going to be able to get lower than the defender because of his height. Still, he has good acceleration out of his stance (90th-percentile 40-yard dash) that makes him a force in the run game, and a good coach can fix his issues in pass protection. Few defenders can get their hands on him properly with his length, which means there is always a good amount of upside with Waletzko, which can be seen in his absurd 9.95 RAS. He can play on Sundays if he figures out the rest. It’s a solid late-round flier.

After a solid Senior Bowl week, Waletzko (6'7"/305) has been a popular player for teams. An athletic tackle with 5.03 speed and a great three cone, he had calls with the Buccaneers, Bears, Texans, Cardinals, and Jaguars on top of the in-person visit with the Broncos. Waletzko will likely be a day-three selection with starter upside.