Dalton Schultz’s time in Dallas made the tight end feel like an animal.
The Texans tight end, fresh off his new three-year, $36 million extension, favorably compared his time in Houston to his Cowboys days, during which he felt like he was there for others’ amusement.
“The focus is just football, you know what I mean?” Schultz said of Houston during “The Pat McAfee Show” on Wednesday. “I’m going back and telling some people about being around the Cowboys practice facility and game day and describing some of the interactions and stuff that you see on a day-to-day basis and it surprises a lot of people. They’re like, ‘Holy crap. That actually happens at a practice facility?’ You think it’s normal, and then you come to a place like this.
“(Dallas is) literally a zoo, dude. There’s people tapping on the glass trying to get people’s attention while they’re doing power cleans or whatever. It’s different. That’s the brand that they’ve built, that’s what [owner] Jerry Jones likes, that’s the way that they run things and there’s nothing wrong with that. You don’t realize how many eyeballs and how much that can maybe distract in the locker room, just being in the facility until you go somewhere else and you’re like, ‘Holy crap, there’s none of that.'”
Playing for big-market teams is not for everyone, and there’s certainly media and fan attention that comes with being a Cowboys star compared to being a Texans standout.
Jones enjoys that his franchise is “America’s Team” and leans into all that comes with such a distinction — both good and bad.
Schultz spent the first five years of his career with Dallas after being selected in the fourth round of the 2018 draft. He then signed a one-year deal with the Texans last offseason.
While the Texans have had their own culture issues in the past, it seems that coach DeMeco Ryans — who was hired last January — has established a different type of program.
Schultz tallied 59 catches for 635 yards and five touchdowns this past season, and the Texans liked what they saw enough to keep him paired with quarterback C.J. Stroud for potentially three years.
