Of the eight draft picks made by the Dallas Cowboys in 2024, center Cooper Beebe was the best of the bunch.

Beebe started in all 16 games he played in 2024, missing only the win at Carolina due to a concussion suffered the week before against the Bengals.

When he was on the field, he took every snap at center for Dallas. He easily saw more snaps than any of the other seven rookies did last year.

It was an impressive transition for Beebe, who had never played the center position in a live game before.

He was a guard at Kansas State in college.

For the 2024 season, Beebe was credited with a fumble recovery in the loss to the 49ers. He was also credited with a fumble on an aborted snap that was recovered by Cooper Rush in the win over Washington.

More importantly, he was only flagged three times all season.

Twice for holding and once for being an ineligible receiver downfield.

None of the penalties were called in the same game. By comparison, first-round pick Tyler Guyton at left tackle drew 14 flags.

He had five multiple penalty games in his rookie year in 2024.

Beebe had some issues at times with pass and run blocking, expected for a rookie lineman, but overall put in solid work.

He has a long way to go before becoming the next Travis Frederick, Mark Stepnoski, Tom Rafferty, or John Fitzgerald. But Beebe certainly seems to be on track and ready to anchor the Cowboys’ offensive line for years to come.

Roster Review 2025: Cooper Beebe. This is Part 15 of a series. Click here for a list of all related articles.

Outlook For 2025

Beebe seems all but a lock to hold on to his starting job, based on his rookie campaign alone.

At 6-4, 225-pounds, he looks every bit the part of a burly Kansas farm boy, even though he went to school in Kansas City – on the Kansas side of that area.

Beebe remains the only player from Piper High School in Kansas City to have ever made it to the NFL. So he probably wants to keep that record intact this year at least.

If Brock Hoffman’s approach to offensive line play starts to rub off on Beebe, he could become a force at center.

It will be interesting to see how the new offensive coordinator, Klayton Adams, and offensive line coach, Conor Riley, work with Beebe this year.

Riley was the offensive line coach at Kansas State when Beebe played there. Riley’s strong suit was developing the run game for the Wildcats.

If that is the new philosophy in Dallas, Beebe could be one of the biggest beneficiaries among the linemen in 2025.

Long-Term Outlook

As mentioned above, the Cowboys have had several solid centers in their history. Although none of them have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.

For that matter, only three offensive linemen from Dallas have made the Hall: Larry Allen, Forrest Gregg, and Rayfield Wright.

All three of them played tackle.

Beebe has a long way to go just to join the top five among the centers, much less the offensive line, in Cowboys’ history.

He’ll have a lot more work to do to be ranked highly among the position’s all-time best in the entire history of the NFL. Only 10 centers have been inducted into the Hall of Fame out of 327 players overall.

So for now, Beebe looks to be the long-term answer at center.

If he can continue to progress, especially if Dallas is looking to become more balanced on offense, that would be a very good start for Beebe’s long-term outlook.

If Beebe can anchor a strong offensive line, he could be in for a very long career in Dallas.