CFZ What Would You Have Done at WR?

[817Gill]

I’ve seen some outlandish reasoning for why the team should have kept the 3 WR’s together. Not sure if we understand how people build rosters but there’s no such thing as paying big deals to 3 WR’s. That just an insane way to allocate your cap funds.

Yes the vaccine and heart/passion issues were thrown around for Coop, but those were more as pros and cons for which WR to keep. The decision to only pay 2 guys moving forward was obvious, they just had to decide who.

The hope is Gallup is a good WR2 at half the cost of Cooper and Lamb steps into the WR1 role and gets the big bucks.

I’m not saying that will happen but the plan wasn’t crazy. Cooper playing well has nothing to do with it, we didn’t trade him due to not being able to play well.

You can’t keep all three once they get off rookie deals and you can’t pay two number 1’s (poor roster management) so you have only two options. A) Cooper and Gallup or B) Lamb and Gallup. Team chose B and it’s not an illogical one. Lamb is younger and was drafted by them. Coop is good but you know his highs. Lamb has the upside to maybe be more so they bet on that.

I know some (most) of us are prisoners of the moment so Coop’s stock is sky high right now while Lamb’s may not be. But by stepping back and looking at the two options outlined in the previous paragraph, what would y’all have done?

I think it was completely logical to bet on Ceedee your first round pick as we know what we have in Cooper.

 

[maryquality]

Getting rid of both Cooper and Wilson, I think, was the issue. Although, I have no idea how Wilson is doing these days.

 

[HungryLion]

Lamb is still under cheap contract for 2 more years.

 

[ghst187]

There was ZERO need to ditch Cooper. We did NOT need to shed salary. We just gave away a top 10 WR for nothing and then roll with scrubs and an injured Gallup. Amari was our best WR by a margin and the only one teams respected. We could’ve kept him another season and see if anyone develops. Relatively speaking, his contract was cheap compared to what top guys got this past offseason. Cleveland has always been a bastion for dumb decisions but now they are laughing at us and reaping the rewards.

 

[KJJ]

I would’ve kept Amari Cooper and Cedrick Wilson and moved on from Michael Gallup. I know Ced hasn’t done much in Miami so far but they have two outstanding receivers in Tyreek Hill and Waddle. When he got opportunities to play when Gallup was out he stepped up and made plays. Gallup has been injury prone suffering two significant injuries last season. We’ll just have to see how he looks when he returns and if he can stay healthy.

 

[cowboyec]

of all the players we lost this off-season...amari cooper was the only one worth a damn.
he was our mvp in '18...saving our season.
deadly route runner.
good hands.
i wish we had kept him.
moving forward,ceedee is our wr1 and needs to be a better finisher.
i still think he's only getting started and is gonna be a helluva pro for a long time.
love gallup.
and noah brown continues to show growth since mccarthy got here.
i loved the pick of jalen tolbert and i'm still excited to watch how he develops.
its a good,promising group.
but there is no way in the immediate of the season to not miss a talent like cooooop.
noah brown in my opinion has done well so far in the cedrick wilson role.
hope to see jalen tolbert get some snaps.
gallup's return is welcomed.
moving into the depth of the season...this group will be fun to watch.

 

[817Gill]

Getting rid of both Cooper and Wilson, I think, was the issue. Although, I have no idea how Wilson is doing these days.

He hasn’t done much but to be fair he’s behind probably the best 1-2 punch in the league right now.

 

[jazzcat22]

Well, most fans on here, and may be true for any NFL team. Will go against the owners and FO.
Since they are always critical of every little move. Including who cleans Jerry's glasses.

As we seen what gets posted about letting Cooper go. If they let Gallup go in FA and kept Cooper. They would be critical of that as well.
We have fickle fans.

I am fine with what they did, as we yet to see how it will all work out. Either way it was a gamble. And we all knew 2 years ago. One would be here and one would not be.
When it became a reality then, the for / against discussions and arguments started. Thing is many already knew they would say the FO sucked one way or the other..0
Others a wait and see approach.

I don't care, I just want to see success and wins. I would have been fine either way.

 

[Stash]

I’ve seen some outlandish reasoning for why the team should have kept the 3 WR’s together. Not sure if we understand how people build rosters but there’s no such thing as paying big deals to 3 WR’s. That just an insane way to allocate your cap funds.

Yes the vaccine and heart/passion issues were thrown around for Coop, but those were more as pros and cons for which WR to keep. The decision to only pay 2 guys moving forward was obvious, they just had to decide who.

The hope is Gallup is a good WR2 at half the cost of Cooper and Lamb steps into the WR1 role and gets the big bucks.

I’m not saying that will happen but the plan wasn’t crazy. Cooper playing well has nothing to do with it, we didn’t trade him due to not being able to play well.

You can’t keep all three once they get off rookie deals and you can’t pay two number 1’s (poor roster management) so you have only two options. A) Cooper and Gallup or B) Lamb and Gallup. Team chose B and it’s not an illogical one. Lamb is younger and was drafted by them. Coop is good but you know his highs. Lamb has the upside to maybe be more so they bet on that.

I know some (most) of us are prisoners of the moment so Coop’s stock is sky high right now while Lamb’s may not be. But by stepping back and looking at the two options outlined in the previous paragraph, what would y’all have done?

I think it was completely logical to bet on Ceedee your first round pick as we know what we have in Cooper.

You omitted option C:

Keep Cooper AND Lamb - who has years remaining on a rookie contract.

 

[817Gill]

Lamb is still under cheap contract for 2 more years.

You omitted option C:

Keep Cooper AND Lamb - who has years remaining on a rookie contract.

Temporary solution though and deals with 1st round picks are usually done after year 4 so basically 1 more year.

If you had let Gallup go and had Coop at 20M and Lamb staring at 20M in a year, you’d have to make this same decision all over again but this time without the crutch of a dependable WR2 in Gallup.

You’d have to choose between Coop and Lamb in a year from now because you’re not paying both top dollar. Also, Cooper would be nearing the end of his deal and the re-up would be within sight.

I’d rather have one of them plus Gallup than only one of them. We have no idea if the team would have another reliable WR by then.

 

[Shane612]

Getting rid of both Cooper and Wilson, I think, was the issue. Although, I have no idea how Wilson is doing these days.

I agree with Wilson's departure. I thought he was just as good as Gallup...if not better.
For whatever reason Cooper wasn't playing up to his big contract in Dallas. Maybe it was his own fault, #4's fault or OC's fault...all the above...

 

[jazzcat22]

Wilson was overrated by many, as usual.

 

[Tangle_Foot]

I would have let Cooper and Wilson walk, "just too much money" but I would have added Jarvis Landry. He has a 3 million base salary that could be worth up to six million. I think we could have absorbed that hit.

That's my GM move for what it's worth

 

[aikemirv]

Would have kept Cooper and Wilson and let Gallup go. Our offense was better with Wilson last year than it was with Gallup. I am pretty sure the numbers support that!

 

[Hawkeye19]

1. False dilemma. We did not “have” to trade or cut Amari due to his cap figure. We are sitting on over 20 mil right now.

2. If we did decide to trade him, we should have kept it quiet but by blabbing about it early we telegraphed the move and gave Cleveland all the leverage in the negotiation.

3. JJ is not being transparent IMO. The fact Coop missed two games for the reason he did pissed JJ off. His comments at the time said as much, and his comments to open TC this year listing “availability” as the key reason Coop and Collins are no longer here reinforces it.

Coop pissed JJ off and earned a ticket to Cleveland pure and simple. When JJ pays you big $$$ he expects you to put the team first. Coop didn’t and got canned, and now JJ is trying to control the narrative so he doesn’t look like a petty, vindictive, spiteful owner

 

[HungryLion]

Temporary solution though and deals with 1st round picks are usually done after year 4 so basically 1 more year.

If you had let Gallup go and had Coop at 20M and Lamb staring at 20M in a year, you’d have to make this same decision all over again but this time without the crutch of a dependable WR2 in Gallup.

You’d have to choose between Coop and Lamb in a year from now because you’re not paying both top dollar. Also, Cooper would be nearing the end of his deal and the re-up would be within sight.

I’d rather have one of them plus Gallup than only one of them. We have no idea if the team would have another reliable WR by then.

So? You would also have a better team THIS year. It’s almost like people forget that the point of football is to try and win.

 

[817Gill]

There was ZERO need to ditch Cooper. We did NOT need to shed salary. We just gave away a top 10 WR for nothing and then roll with scrubs and an injured Gallup. Amari was our best WR by a margin and the only one teams respected. We could’ve kept him another season and see if anyone develops. Relatively speaking, his contract was cheap compared to what top guys got this past offseason. Cleveland has always been a bastion for dumb decisions but now they are laughing at us and reaping the rewards.

We didn’t need to shed salary for just this season guys but roster management goes beyond one year.

Like I said in the above post:

If you had let Gallup go and had Coop at 20M and Lamb staring at 20M in a year, you’d have to make this same decision all over again but this time without the crutch of a dependable WR2 in Gallup.

You’d have to choose between Coop and Lamb in a year from now because you’re not paying both top dollar. Also, Cooper would be nearing the end of his deal and the re-up would be within sight.

Nobody in the history of the league has paid 3WR’s. You honestly think that’s a good way to build a roster?

 

[HungryLion]

Well, most fans on here, and may be true for any NFL team. Will go against the owners and FO.
Since they are always critical of every little move. Including who cleans Jerry's glasses.

As we seen what gets posted about letting Cooper go. If they let Gallup go in FA and kept Cooper. They would be critical of that as well.
We have fickle fans.

I am fine with what they did, as we yet to see how it will all work out. Either way it was a gamble. And we all knew 2 years ago. One would be here and one would not be.
When it became a reality then, the for / against discussions and arguments started. Thing is many already knew they would say the FO sucked one way or the other..0
Others a wait and see approach.

I don't care, I just want to see success and wins. I would have been fine either way.

poor FO gets criticized when they don’t have success.

 

[817Gill]

So? You would also have a better team THIS year. It’s almost like people forget that the point of football is to try and win.

I mean I guess if you want to try to go all in for one year I get it. But I don’t think Cooper is the reason this team would make a run lol.

This bring a whole new debate though. With the current HC and OC plus no elite QB, the team’s identity shouldn’t even be one that needs 3 top-flight WR’s. We shouldn’t be throwing 35-40 times a game we’ve seen that already. Dak is like 25-1 in games where we rush for 100 yards.

I may be giving the FO too much credit but it seems like we’ve pivoted to a more balanced attack with a roadgrader in Tyler Smith. If that’s so, then letting Coop go makes even more sense. With this defense, if we have a balanced offense that allows Dak to be a play action guy then that’s our best chance of winning. Not slinging the ball around all year, we have already seen that story.

We’ll see if it works, but you can’t keep thinking we are gonna be the 2007 patriots and throw our way to a SB. At some point we need to go back to the philosophy that got us farthest in 2014/16.

 

[Coogiguy03]

Lamb is still under cheap contract for 2 more years.

. He can make that last another 4 years