![]() With Ezekiel Elliott no longer the headliner of the Dallas Cowboys running back room, the Cowboys needed to do whatever it took to retain Tony Pollard, the NFL's leader in yards per touch last season (5.9). Cooks' presence should prevent some of the quarterback's force-feeding to Lamb that costed Dallas dearly in their NFC Divisional Round loss at the San Francisco 49ers that ended their season.Ĭontract: One year, $10.09 million (franchise tag) Lamb accounted for 30% of the Cowboys' team receptions in 2022, the second-highest rate in the entire NFL. Cooks' work on intermediate route's like posts, digs, and out routes can provide Prescott with a checkdown option should Lamb or Michael Gallup not break open deep. He cooked, pun intended, man defense last season, registering a career-high 71.6% success rate last season, according to Y ahoo Sports' Matt Harmon. Cooks, who will turn 30 during the 2023 season, still provides plenty of speed and production as he's had over 1,000 yards receiving with all four teams ( New Orleans Saints, New England Patriots, Los Angeles Rams, and Houston Texans) that he's played for in his nine-year career. This was the Cowboys' home run move that they desperately needed to make in order to help get Dak Prescott back on track. With Dallas seemingly learning from their past mistakes, here's out how each of their new moves graded out in order for them to receive one of the top marks of the 2023 offseason. Quarterback Dak Prescott clearly missed Cooper, locking on to CeeDee Lamb too much in 2022, part of the reason why he became the first player in NFL history to lead or co-lead the league in interceptions despite missing five or more games. A stark contrast to an offseason ago when the Cowboys sent four-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Amari Cooper, at 27 years old, to the Cleveland Browns along with a sixth round pick, in exchange for a fifth and sixth round pick in a clear salary dump. These weren't typical trades, at least for the Cowboys, as they were the ones receiving proven veteran talent in exchange for late round picks (two 2023 fifth picks and a 2024 sixth round pick combined for both Gilmore and Cooks). However, the Cowboys' two best moves of the offseason were via trades, acquiring cornerback Stephon Gilmore, the 32-year-old 2019 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, and wide receiver Brandin Cooks, 29 years-old, from the Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans respectively. That's with Elliott having the worst yards-per-touch average in the league while Pollard had the best (5.9). The Silver and Blue releasing Elliott, the fourth overall pick of the 2016 NFL Draft whom they gave a six-year, $90 million contract extension, is a pleasant surprise given that Zeke totaled 16 more carries than Pollard in 2022. ![]() Keeping running back Tony Pollard ( franchise tag), safety Donovan Wilson ( three-year, $21 million contract), linebacker Leighton Vander Esch ( two-year, $11 million deal), left tackle Tyron Smith ( contract restructure), and backup quarterback Cooper Rush ( two-year, $5 million pact) around were no-brainer decisions. Maybe all that was Jones bluffing because Dallas has since done a 180 and earned an 'A' in CBS Sports' team grades of all 32 teams in the 2023 NFL free agency cycle, one of the highest marks in the league. It appeared as though the game had passed Jones by between those comments, the Cowboys' 12th consecutive playoff run without a conference championship game appearance (the longest such streak in NFL history), and continuing to pay sentimental favorite and Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott, who averaged 3.9 yards per touch in 2022 (the lowest in the NFL among players with at least 200 touches). ![]() The Dallas Cowboys' 2023 offseason got off to a rocky start in early February when owner and general manager Jerry Jones displayed an inability to distinguish between the 2021 Los Angeles Rams' and 2022 Philadelphia Eagles team-building approaches.
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