NFL
By: Greg Rector
For the umpteenth time, the unwarranted and ridiculous coverage of the Dallas Cowboys is impacting what the team will look like in the future. It’s disheartening that Cowboys fans go through this annual exercise. So much of this is caused by the man at the top and his son loving cameras and microphones way too much. The Jones’ love of attention instead of focusing on making the actual football team the priority is biting them in the rear end yet again. I refer of course to the latest rumors and rumblings regarding Amari Cooper’s future. This is now the narrative out in the NFL media landscape, thanks to one of my least favorite people, Adam Schefter.
Cowboys are “likely” to release WR Amari Copper by the start of the new league year, per league sources.
Cooper is due $20 million in fully guaranteed money on the fifth day of the new league year, March 20.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 4, 2022
Everyone is jumping on board the Cooper will be released train now. Guess what that means Cowboys fans? The Jones” family is not in a position of strength to get fair market value for Cooper in a trade. In a fair trade, the Cowboys could have likely received a 2nd and possibly a 5th round draft pick for Cooper. Since the “release,” is now such a narrative why would any team bother making a deal? This is the result yet again of the owner and his son yapping to anyone who will listen to them. Football decisions always seem to need to survive some sort of media-driven litmus test in Dallas. It’s utterly pathetic and has impeded the competitiveness of the Cowboys on the field for far too long. Stephen throwing out talk about this player or that player and they’re worth to the team belongs in the “Behind Closed Doors,” realm. We don’t hear this type of stuff with other franchises. The local Dallas media speculation is annoying enough, add in the likes of ESPN and the NFL Network on a national basis and the Cowboys end up overpaying to keep their free agents. The smarter decision would be “No comment of player personnel.,” by either Jerry or Stephen Jones. This is simply why so many fans are annually frustrated. You know though that both of them will continue the never-ending media assault because that’s good for the “Brand,” that is the Cowboys.
Also seeing a lot about the record of the Cowboys with and without Amari Cooper. Sorry, I don’t buy into the single-player making the big difference mentality. Cooper has missed 9 games as a Dallas Cowboy, who else were the Cowboys missing in those 9 games? La’el Collins? Tyron Smith? What about the defensive players missing in those same 9 games? This again is where focusing on the individual versus having the entire picture skews things. Certainly, Amari Cooper is a talented NFL player but to focus on the Cowboys numbers in those 9 games without giving us a complete picture of the team as a whole in those 9 games, the media is giving you a piece to the puzzle only. It makes their narratives more plausible and most folks buy into it. As y’all know I don’t buy into the narratives. Now I’m not going to research those 9 games, but you can pretty much assume that since this is the NFL, other starters were missing those games as well which would also impact the outcome of those games.
We all know the various issues surrounding Cooper and the salary cap situation. We also know within the Star at Frisco, Cooper’s vaccine status, going to the media and calling out the coaching staff for not targeting him enough (Fair point BTW), and his struggles in road games versus his production at AT&T Stadium are all factors that are being weighed inside the headquarters. None of this though should have been addressed to the media. Those discussions should only be front-office decisions. It’s already well known the way the Cowboys will not push the salary cap envelope like the Rams and other teams have done. The Cooper discussions should have stayed in-house and acted upon from there. By that, I mean trading Amari Cooper, instead of now losing leverage in a trade. “We do not comment on player personnel decisions.” That won’t happen because all attention is good attention right Jerry and Stephen Jones? If the two of them truly cared about the product on the field as they love to claim in front of the cameras, they would be more like Bill Belichick, who gives away NOTHING to the media, nor does the franchise. Six Super Bowls for them Jerry and Stephen, so what direction do you two go in? The direct opposite one of course. I don’t hear any other owner/s doing this anywhere else in the NFL. It’s maddening that because they never shut up, free agents become more expensive, their deals get inflated and it becomes unrealistic to get rid of a player because of the dead money problem they create for themselves. Time and again this is the story for the Cowboys. By refusing to feed their friends in the media Jerry and Stephen probably feel it would impact the “Brand,” negatively. That focus will be the reason they continue to struggle when it matters most folks. Should have remained quiet, made a faster decision, and traded Cooper before all of this other talk even started. The Cowboys then could have re-signed Gallup and Wilson, then drafted one maybe even two receivers in a deep draft class at the wide receiver position. Don’t tell me the Cowboys wouldn’t be as good because Dak and Amari worked well together either. Tom Brady worked well with a whole lot of different receivers. So have Manning, Rodgers, Wilson, and all the other so-called elite QBs. Turnover happens annually, and we simply don’t know if a draft pick might just turn out better overall. Sometimes holding onto the one you know, could be less effective than going in a different direction.
The only time I want to hear from Jerry and Stephen? After the Cowboys have lifted the Lombardi Trophy. Sadly that won’t happen and they will continue to put themselves into the title of the article “The Cowboys Quandry.”
As always you can find me on Twitter @GregCowboys
