Cowboys claim TE Zack Kuntz off waivers after Princeton Fant is lost for the season

The Dallas Cowboys moved quickly to address a season-altering loss in the tight end room on Thursday, claiming tight end Zack Kuntz off waivers, according to the NFL’s daily transaction activity. The move came after the team placed tight end Princeton Fant on injured reserve with a torn ACL, ending Fant’s season before the regular campaign fully began.

Fant’s injury changes more than just a spot on the depth chart. In the NFL, tight ends are central to both protection schemes and the passing game, and an ACL injury removes a player for the remainder of the year. With Fant sidelined, Dallas needed an immediate addition to keep its playmaking and blocking options from thinning out during training camp and the stretch leading into the start of the regular season.

The Cowboys’ roster response reflects the short timeline teams face when an injury forces a midstream recalibration. Injured reserve limits immediate practice and game availability, and it also affects how many repetitions the remaining players can take in team periods. By claiming Kuntz off waivers, Dallas added a player who can participate in preparations right away and provide depth in an area where NFL offenses frequently rotate personnel packages.

The transaction also illustrates how waiver claims function as a mechanism for teams to find usable roster options with limited time to negotiate. Once a team places a player on injured reserve, the vacancy creates a need for another body, and the waiver wire is one of the fastest paths to do that. In this case, Dallas matched the need created by Fant’s injured reserve designation with a claim, rather than waiting for a later roster cycle.

While the public transaction report confirms the claim and the corresponding injured reserve move, details about how Kuntz fits immediately into Dallas’ rotation are not fully established in the reporting available here. Tight ends typically earn roles through camp reps, assessment of blocking technique, and specific deployment in passing concepts, so the real impact will depend on how quickly Kuntz can translate his skills to Dallas’ scheme and assignments.

For the Cowboys, the next focus is likely how the tight end group is organized around the remaining pieces after Fant’s absence. Dallas will need to ensure it can cover the basic operational needs of the position, including run-game responsibilities and third-down package execution. From there, the training-camp storyline becomes straightforward to watch: whether Kuntz can earn meaningful snaps and whether the team’s tight end usage stabilizes after Fant’s injury, or whether Dallas must reshuffle roles further to compensate.