Come on down, Cowboys fans. The 2020 free agency period begins one month from today. And business as usual around The Star in Frisco could start to take on a very The Price Is Right kind of feel.
Prescott Payday is the high-stakes game getting most of the attention, and everyone seems to have their own personal strategy for how they’d play Byron: Buy or Bye? But the Dallas front office has a handful of other key choices to make before March 18 as well. Not the least of which involves a wide receiving corps that kicked off 2019 looking like they’d make a serious run at the Showcase Showdown. But after stumbling their way to nothing more than parting gifts at season’s end, two of the group’s three starters suddenly seem to have one foot out the door.
Both Amari Cooper and Randall Cobb made NFL.com analyst (and former Packers wide receiver) James Jones’s list of the top ten receivers worth pursuing for teams in the market.
Cooper is coming off his best season as a pro in terms of receiving yards, per-game average, and number of touchdowns. He was the fourth overall pick in the 2015 draft and is a four-time Pro Bowler. That resume becomes all the more impressive considering Cooper will have just turned 26 years old when 2020’s training camp opens.
So why the hesitation from the Cowboys brass? There were a few poor performances in 2019, and those often appear larger in the rearview mirror than the genuinely big games. Cooper’s mystifying dropoff in away games has been documented and cannot be ignored. And while he acknowledges to having played hurt, the fact that he seems to be hurt so often could be a legitimate concern.
But still, his numbers speak for themselves and put Cooper atop James Jones’s list as the premier option available at wide receiver this offseason:
“With the Dallas Cowboys focused primarily on keeping pending free agent Dak Prescott in the fold, it feels like we could see Amari Cooper hit the open market. If he does, expect teams to come running. Cooper, who’s coming off the best season of his career, is a guy who would fit well in a lot of offenses. He’s a big-bodied, physical No. 1 receiver and he’s proven over five NFL seasons that he can be ‘the guy’ who sparks an offense. He just needs to be on the field.”
In his look at the Cowboys’ to-do list on the offensive side of the ball, ESPN’s Todd Archer agrees on what the Alabama product brings and says the club should absolutely keep him on the roster, even if a deal doesn’t get done by March 18:
“The transition tag could be a possibility if there is not an extension of the collective bargaining agreement. Cooper’s production tailed off toward the end of the season, but he changed the Cowboys’ passing game since arriving in a trade from Oakland. Maybe he doesn’t hit the highest end of the receiver market like we assumed, but he will at least be around for 2020.”
Cobb is still the new guy in town. But in his first year with the Cowboys, the former second-round pick posted solid numbers in the slot, racking up his best yardage total since 2015. His 15.1 yards-per-game average in 2019 was the best of his NFL career, and now he has a full season’s worth of chemistry with Dak Prescott to build on… and his former head coach calling the shots.
Cobb seems to have proven his worth in last season’s one-year rental deal. Jones calls Cobb the ninth-best available receiver and feels he deserves to stay on in Dallas:
“Cobb, one of my former teammates in Green Bay, is a savvy veteran who can still contribute in any offense. He made some big plays for the Cowboys over the final two months of last season after building a rapport with Dak Prescott. It would make too much sense for the Cowboys to re-sign Cobb with ex-Packers coach Mike McCarthy now in town, but I’ll leave that decision up to Jerry Jones.”
Archer also thinks the coaching change in Dallas makes this an easier decision for Jerry Jones and Co.:
“The arrival of McCarthy, his former coach in Green Bay, helps his odds of returning. Having a player who understands what a new coach expects is extremely beneficial. And Cobb played well in 2019, although he had some drops. He was able to stay healthy, too, missing just one game. Price might become an issue, but the Cowboys are a better offense in 2020 if he is around.”
To let one of these two receivers walk would mean spinning the wheel on a replacement and just hoping to get lucky. To let both of them go? Cue the sad-trombone music; thanks for playing. Michael Gallup made tremendous strides in his second season and looks to have a superstar-caliber ceiling, but it would be premature to expect him to suddenly be the team’s No. 1 option at the position, no matter how promising his skill set.
The Cowboys have one month to place their bids to retain Cooper and Cobb. But in this version of the game, trying to get clever by being the lowest bid on the board never ever earns the big shiny prize at the end.
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