The Cooper, Gallup and Cobb upgrade

Diehardblues

Diehardblues

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Bobhaze said:
Here’s a quick example of how much better the Cowboys are in 2019 at acquisition of talent.

At the beginning of the 2016 season, the Cowboys’ starting receivers were Dez Bryant, Terrance Williams and Cole Beasley. Williams was a former 3rd round pick and Beasley a former UFA. They were the supporting cast for #1 receiver Dez Bryant who had signed a big contract in 2015. A pretty decent trio at the time, and it appeared they were our future at WR.

Flash forward to 2019 and we actually have a huge upgrade with Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup and Randall Cobb which was on display yesterday in the giants game. Dez was definitely a playmaker in his day, but Amari Cooper is a much more complete player with his precise route running. Comparing 3rd round pick Michael Gallup to TWill is also a huge upgrade. Gallup is also a great route runner and his savvy for getting open far exceeds TWill. And comparing free agent Randall Cobb to his predecessor Cole Beasley is also better. Cobb is bigger, stronger, and a better blocker in addition to his solid route running.

This year’s receiver group is a huge upgrade to what we had in 2016. And it showed yesterday. The weapons Dak has now make this offense potentially the best we’ve seen in a long time.

It’s early in a long season, but I think it’s pretty clear we have upgraded big time at the WR position.
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When you consider starting Game 1 last year we didn’t have Cooper, Cobb and Witten which doesn’t include Pollard , healthy Austin and Freddy’s return at Center. It’s a huge influx of talent.
 
RustyBourneHorse

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NeathBlue said:
Remember us lining up last season against Carolina and thinking it was the worst WR corp we’d had since I could remember... We started with T-Will and Deonte Thompson!
One year later and we have as good a 3 set at WR, as any team in the league and the best we’ve had in decades.
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I'd argue it's one of the best 3 set at WRs in the league.
 
Diehardblues

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Bobhaze said:
It’s interesting- the Dak critics have alternately pointed to his mechanics (which needed to improve), his accuracy (he’s always been statistically above average there), and his lack of stats (which is always a bit overrated).

But Dak is 33-16 as a starter, has started every game for this team in 3+ seasons (he’s durable) and for the stat junkies out there, he has thrown for nearly 800 yards in his last two regular season games. Yeah they were against the giants but the criticism of Dak not being that great should be decreasing.
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I still believe the criticism last year was justified. We had 24th ranked passing and scoring offense. 22nd overall. It was lethargic in Redzone.

But as your thread is describing we’ve added an influx of talent which appears to be making quite a difference. Although we have a small sample size against a bottom tier team.

Like you posted the other day, don’t let one game derive at too many conclusions. Nobody is winning championships in September.

Having said that, it was a great win. A career day from Dak. It’s much to build on. Could be fun year. Enjoy the win.

We should know more in October. And ultimately it will be decided in January.
 
JD_KaPow

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Bobhaze said:
Our FO deserves credit for this upgrade.

I remember some fans last year saying we couldn’t afford to lose Cole Beasley. It’s an example of fans sometime only being able to see “the known” as worth keeping instead of an “unknown” that would actually be better. Looks like our FO has learned some good lessons about talent acquisition.
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Beasley really was an excellent player back in 2014-16. But by the time he hit 30, yeah, moving on isn't so painful. And let's not overreact to what Cobb did against that Rutgers defense yesterday: he hasn't been particularly good the last couple years. We'll see how he makes it through the season. Color me cautiously optimistic.

Cooper is a different player than Dez, but Dez was spectacular from 2012-14. By 2016, the injuries took their toll and he just wasn't the same guy.

But Gallup, wow. Terrance Williams was a good player at his peak but I expect greatness from Gallup.
 
CowboyRoy

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Bobhaze said:
Here’s a quick example of how much better the Cowboys are in 2019 at acquisition of talent.

At the beginning of the 2016 season, the Cowboys’ starting receivers were Dez Bryant, Terrance Williams and Cole Beasley. Williams was a former 3rd round pick and Beasley a former UFA. They were the supporting cast for #1 receiver Dez Bryant who had signed a big contract in 2015. A pretty decent trio at the time, and it appeared they were our future at WR.

Flash forward to 2019 and we actually have a huge upgrade with Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup and Randall Cobb which was on display yesterday in the giants game. Dez was definitely a playmaker in his day, but Amari Cooper is a much more complete player with his precise route running. Comparing 3rd round pick Michael Gallup to TWill is also a huge upgrade. Gallup is also a great route runner and his savvy for getting open far exceeds TWill. And comparing free agent Randall Cobb to his predecessor Cole Beasley is also better. Cobb is bigger, stronger, and a better blocker in addition to his solid route running.

This year’s receiver group is a huge upgrade to what we had in 2016. And it showed yesterday. The weapons Dak has now make this offense potentially the best we’ve seen in a long time.

It’s early in a long season, but I think it’s pretty clear we have upgraded big time at the WR position.
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And the TE position and the use of RB's out of the backfield.
 
Doc50

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Runwildboys said:
Add to all of this, the fact that Dak clearly worked hard to improve his mechanics, and was dropping the ball in perfectly last night.
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So many of us are impatient to the point of having unreasonable expectations; we want all players to be instantly NFL ready.

The reality is that coaching and experience continuously improves the hard working athlete, and many deficits can be overcome with time.

For example, I see that some are already declaring Trysten Hill a bust, but I doubt the coaches feel that way at all.
 
NickZepp

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Gallup shows a lot of promise but I won't say he's better than Terrance Williams yet. He's got a better ceiling. As much as I loved Beasley as a player Cobb is way better. Cooper was a steal. I think he's better than AB overall. And now the Raiders don't have AB or Coop.
 
SlammedZero

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On Cowboys Break today, they also made a great point that all these WRs are more interchangeable as well, vs when we had Dez and Beasley for example.
 
Baileyneverfailey

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AshyLarry06 said:
Agree as a whole but Dez in his prime was above and beyond better than Coop, and i love Coop. But Dez was a monstrosity and completely unstoppable for 2-3 years there.
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From 2014-2016 yeah, Dez was top 3 in the league. And that was still just them throwing him 9s, comebacks, and 50/50 balls.

If Dez had playcalling like Moore was doing yesterday during his prime here, throwing him lots of slants and stuff over the middle, he'd have been even more of a monster.

That being said, Cooper is a wildly better route runner and a better receiver to have on the team all things considered, because Dez was way too easy to frustrate out of games.
 
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