DALLAS — Free agency and the new NFL year are upon us, and the Cowboys have done what we have come to anticipate — sounding the horns of retreat.
It’s one thing to say the club can no longer afford its punter (he was really good) or kicker (he was not). It’s another to send Amari Cooper packing to Cleveland for, in effect, a fifth-round pick. The real “victory” in Saturday’s trade is the saving of $16 million in cap space, but how much of that money will go to the injured Michael Gallup to fill Cooper’s roster spot?
Too early to say.
This is a team that has offensive line issues and has given La’el Collins’ agent permission to seek a trade. At least give management credit for knowing that the club’s No. 1 ranking in total offense last season was fools’ gold. The scoreboard against Arizona and San Francisco in January was much more telling.
Cooper lacked great stats last season — he missed two games as an unvaccinated player who tested positive — but he was highly productive from the moment he arrived as a savior in 2018 (remember that stretch when Dak couldn’t throw for 200 yards a game?) through 2020. He’s not as dynamic as CeeDee Lamb but he’s much more sure-handed.
It was an open secret that the Cowboys would consider cutting Cooper this winter, and that reduced his trade value to nearly nothing. The club sacrificed its first-round pick in 2019 to get him and gets a fifth-round selection at the exit door.
In between, they won a single playoff game. Most teams might call that a waste, given that a 2019 first-rounder would be developing as a fourth-year player this fall. For the Cowboys, a team with three playoff wins in 25 years, I suppose Cooper’s role in that victory over Seattle is to be memorialized.
Enough rumors are swirling to send these moods and projections the other way. I highly doubt the team will cut defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence. Linebacker Bobby Wagner of Seattle is getting attention, based on his history with Dan Quinn. Is the Rams’ Von Miller a potential short-term target? That seems suspect. Still, Dallas could do something big, something completely out of character.
But the early returns are discouraging. This looks like the same formula that has failed the Cowboys for a generation. If that proves to be true, the only ones paying a price will be the fans.
