CFZ What Would You Have Done at WR?

[Mr_437]

Kept Amari.

 

[Stash]

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.

They’re all “temporary solutions” given that most deals are for four years.

And Lamb still has a 5th year option for 2024.

 

[817Gill]

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

That’s extremely reasonable and makes complete sense! Thanks for that

 

[slick325]

I would have sought to reduce Cooper's number and kept him. I let an injured Gallup walk. Re-sign Wilson and obviously keep Lamb.

 

[817Gill]

They’re all “temporary solutions” given that most deals are for four years.

And Lamb still has a 5th year option for 2024.

Yeah but 4 years is a lot more of a runway than one. Keep in mind rarely do rookies who get second deals have to wait until that 5th year option. If you get there, 95% of the time you won’t be resigned.

Regardless, there was only maybe 1 year more you could have all three together. You can argue we should have went all in for this year and I get that. But moving past that with Gallup, Cooper, and Lamb’s contract timelines we are looking at someone or two being left out.

I can see arguments for both ways, I just don’t get acting like this wasn’t a situation that could be played out in multiple ways. What the FO did wasn’t illogical in choosing Lamb and Gallup. Only regret is they wouldn’t have blabbered about the negatives of Coop and gotten a higher pick out of it.

 

[Miller]

I agree with this honestly. Go find alternatives if money/personality was an issue. They did the bare minimum

 

[817Gill]

I would have sought to reduce Cooper's number and kept him. I let an injured Gallup walk. Re-sign Wilson and obviously keep Lamb.

I like that, but a lot of us fans forget Wilson’s first 3 years here. He was constantly injured.

You’d be letting a better injured player go for a worse one with only a 5M salary difference but it’s definitely still a viable plan.

 

[817Gill]

I agree with this honestly. Go find alternatives if money/personality was an issue. They did the bare minimum

Another good point

 

[speedkilz88]

I like that, but a lot of us fans forget Wilson’s first 3 years here. He was constantly injured.

You’d be letting a better injured player go for a worse one with only a 5M salary difference but it’s definitely still a viable plan.

They also don't seem to know that Wilson only played in the slot. The coaches had no confidence he could play outside and because of that versus the 49ers they couldn't put Lamb in the slot to get better matchups and get him going in that game.

 

[MyFairLady]

I like Wilson I probably would have kept him. I had no objections with letting Cooper walk. His money is better spent elsewhere and Lamb needs to prove himself worthy. The DJ Chark on a one year deal would have been great.

 

[jterrell]

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.

Excellent post that deals in reality not pure animus and emotional vomit.

The situation was clear for all to see a year ago. They didn't restructure Coop choosing to eat his full base. That made trade or release an obvious consideration because they restructured all the other big money.

I do believe if Gallup had stayed healthy and performed well and his numbers were higher he may have the guy to walk but his reduced contract options due to injury and Amari's 20m per year salary just collided.
CeeDee is young and still growing but he is more electric than Coop now. It isn't hard to pick him over Coop.
Gallup tougher to do but at 11.5M versus 20M and 3 years younger is it that hard?

I'd like to think I would have been able to put this off 1 more year. Restructure Amari down this year before releasing him next year.
Essentially buying one more year at 20M in cash and a 5th round pick versus what Dallas did.
Am I getting the better deal? I think it's a close call.

 

[John813]

I think the only thing I would of done different was to of brought in a more established WR instead of Washington. He fell out of favor in Pitt somewhat early and never really did much there.
Someone like Chark would of been interesting as at least he had one very good year and being on the Jags and their disfunction there was a higher boom for upside. Now the Lions gave him a good amount so maybe we were just priced out.
Or Landry, who has slowed down over time, but at least is still a good receiver.

Edit: The downside to most offenses/OCs wanting to go 3 wide is that you need 3 good receivers. We had that last year.
This year we came in with one good receiver in Lamb. Unfortunately Washington got hurt so we never got to see what he could of done as a #2, and Gallup is coming back from injury and hopefully not rushed back.
I liked re-signing Gallup was a good move and price point. Just short term to start the season him being injured put them in a hole at WR.

 

[817Gill]

Excellent post that deals in reality not pure animus and emotional vomit.

The situation was clear for all to see a year ago. They didn't restructure Coop choosing to eat his full base. That made trade or release an obvious consideration because they restructured all the other big money.

I do believe if Gallup had stayed healthy and performed well and his numbers were higher he may have the guy to walk but his reduced contract options due to injury and Amari's 20m per year salary just collided.
CeeDee is young and still growing but he is more electric than Coop now. It isn't hard to pick him over Coop.
Gallup tougher to do but at 11.5M versus 20M and 3 years younger is it that hard?

I'd like to think I would have been able to put this off 1 more year. Restructure Amari down this year before releasing him next year.
Essentially buying one more year at 20M in cash and a 5th round pick versus what Dallas did.
Am I getting the better deal? I think it's a close call.

Yup, I think that’s the best you could do in terms of keeping all 3 together.

 

[Motorola]

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

An inauspicious beginning with the Dolphins.
Game 1 v. Patriots___2 targets - 2 receptions for 20 yards; 1 rush for 8 yards
Game 2 v. Ravens____1 target - no receptions

On a team with Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, along with pass-catching RBs Raheem Mosert and Chase Edmonds - 4 and 5 receptions respectfully to start the season - Wilson's productivity on his new team might be lacking.
But the season's just started..more opportunities could go his way as future opponents may double team Hill or Waddle.

 

[Swagger]

Not pay Prescott, draft a rookie QB to provide similar if not better production (perhaps not in terms of garbage time window dressed up individual stats but team wins) and paid Cooper.
At the time I advocated moving up to draft Herbert and offering Prescott and our second rounder (Diggs) or drafting Hurts and letting Prescott walk. Ok we miss out on Diggs but we would have had £35+ million to fill the void and some. It makes me laugh when some posters on here ask what would you do without Prescott when many people on here already provided workable solutions but it's now reached a stage where it's very difficult to move on.

 

[jterrell]

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

1a. is False and easily verifiably so no need to ever post that misinformation. DAL has 12M in cap space.
2022 NFL Team Salary Cap Space Tracker | Spotrac
1b. "They could" have made the 20M for sure but you limit yourself next year and later this year to do that
2. Nonsense. This is the dumbest fan/media point of all-time. Agent/player and team all work together on stuff like this which means there is no hiding it. Beyond that you can't host a sell and not tell anyone. If you are selling a 65" TV you think the best dela is available by just randomly inviting people over and hoping someone offers you cash for it or by posting it on Facebook marketplace?? Again, this is a popular but illogical take.
3. The question wasn't directed at Jerry but at the board/you. We know what Jerry would have done. You didn't answer the question at all.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

This is the thing. The Cowboys got rid of overpaid players who weren’t living up to their pay and who lacked dog in them. Started with Jaylon during the season……for Collins and Cooper out of here and refused to march Gregory. We needed drastic changes to this team and they went with the makeup….so what’s the issue?

 

[zrinkill]

Well, most fans on here, Will go against the owners and FO.

Yea sure ..... Fans are just being fickle.

Has nothing to do with the last 27 years of futility because our idiot owners won't hire someone who puts football before said owners Ego's.

Give me a break with that crap

 

[jterrell]

An inauspicious beginning with the Dolphins.
Game 1 v. Patriots___2 targets - 2 receptions for 20 yards; 1 rush for 8 yards
Game 2 v. Ravens____1 target - no receptions

On a team with Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, along with pass-catching RBs Raheem Mosert and Chase Edmonds - 4 and 5 receptions respectfully to start the season - Wilson's productivity on his new might be lacking.
But the season's just started..more opportunities could go his way as future opponents may double team Hill or Waddle.

He is great insurance, but they are paying him essentially 2 years and 15M to play 35/40% of the snaps on offense and zero on ST.
It has forced them into making Erik Ezukanma(R2 IIRC) inactive because he also doesn't help on ST.
Not a great return for them thus far and a bummer for us they overpaid and stole him.
He would have 100% been up around 80% of Off snaps here through the first 2 weeks.

 

[Whiskey Cowboy]

Restructure Cooper, let Gallup walk. If it doesn't work, let Cooper go next season and use a high draft pick as a replacement. This should've been an all-in season. The defense has elite potential and the offense still would've been potent without Gallup. Would you rather try for a championship now, or die a slow death by keeping a less talented roster together?

I keep hearing about these contracts coming up. Micah is on year 2 of his rookie deal, and Lamb/Diggs are on year 3. Cap space can be created by moving on from Zeke and Lawrence. The cap hit for Dak's final year of his contract is around $25m as it stands. Money can be moved forward if the plan is to keep him around. If that isn't the plan, they'd be blowing up the roster and starting over anyways.

Point being, the excuse that they needed the cap room (that they didn't use) is just that, an excuse. Cooper hurt Jerral and Dak's feelings and he was moved as an emotional, knee jerk reaction.