The Cowboys really need help at wide receiver.
The Dallas Cowboys have thrown a lot of cough relatively cough new terms and ideas at fans of the team this offseason, such as being “selectively aggressive” in free agency and looking to get ahead of contract negotiations with all-important defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa. The fact remains though, they are right back to being in a familiar spot, and one they failed so spectacularly in last offseason it is understandably going to take time for the front office to earn back trust.
The Cowboys may not have lost any future Hall of Fame players last season, but they did lose multiple contributors and starters, and stared regression in the face by doing nothing to replace any of them before falling from division champions to 7-10 and third in the NFC East and out of the playoffs. Now, in their first opportunity to learn from this disaster of an offseason, the Cowboys do have a future gold jacket wearer to replace, as right guard Zack Martin told the team last week he will retire a lifelong Cowboy.
Martin served as the last reminder of the heavy investment Dallas made to their offensive line over the years, playing with the Cowboys fellow first-round picks Tyron Smith and Travis Frederick. He is simply one of the best, most consistent, and dominant players in team history at the right guard position. It goes without saying the Cowboys will not have an easy time replacing him.
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The Cowboys don’t need to feel pigeonholed into using their 12th overall pick on a guard, one that would have to come in and learn a new Brian Schottenheimer/Klayton Adams system that will equally be new to veterans like QB Dak Prescott or WR CeeDee Lamb. The draft board may very well fall in such a way where an offensive or defensive lineman is the best player available for the Cowboys in a class full of talent in the trenches, but the options should remain open not only beyond these two positions, but the ever-popular mock pick of running back as well. It needs to include wide receiver, regardless of what the Cowboys also do at the position in free agency, where bringing back veteran Brandin Cooks will be an option.
Another carryover question from last offseason to this one for America’s Team is how they can better support the two cornerstone players they made massive financial commitments to in Prescott and Lamb. With that equation getting even harder without the benefit of penciling Martin into the starting lineup anymore, even with some uncharacteristic injuries and decline in play emerging towards the end, a glance at the current Cowboys depth chart on offense simply does not reflect a unit ready to light up scoreboards if they just find a new right guard.
Whether it’s Brock Hoffman, T.J. Bass, Asim Richards, Nathan Thomas, moving center Cooper Beebe, or a new draft pick at right guard, there is very little the Cowboys could do at this spot or any of the other concerning points up front (like both tackle positions) to move the needle offensively back towards those 12-win teams of the past. This team wants to help Dak Prescott find his rookie contract form, but doing so by fielding a totally dominant offensive line in front of the franchise QB is not achievable in one offseason.
The next logical place Dallas must look is at wide receiver, where Prescott has had the likes of Amari Cooper, Cole Beasley, Michael Gallup, and Dez Bryant. Now, Lamb is the only player that regularly threatens an opposing defense with big-play ability, and the pressure put on him and Prescott to be perfect together was not sustainable even before Prescott got hurt and was lost for the season, and Lamb battled through lingering injuries later on.
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Ohio State’s Emeka Egbuka, Missouri’s Luther Burden III, or Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan are all blue-chip draft prospects that have the complementary athletic ability to create a strong tandem with Lamb. The Cowboys desperately need to reorder the slots on their receiving depth chart at the moment, with players like Jalen Tolbert, Jalen Brooks, Jonathan Mingo, and Ryan Flournoy all being slotted higher than their proven track records would suggest. Prioritizing this position in both the draft and free agency would go a long way in helping these players get back to the more piecemeal roles they can find more success in.
Other coaching points the Cowboys have alluded to as points of emphasis under the new staff are merging their looks in the run and pass game to create an advantage against defenses, getting the offensive line blocking out in space more, and getting the ball out of Prescott’s hands with reads available at all levels of the field. Creating different forms of easy completions for Prescott will be paramount for the Cowboys getting the most out of an offensive line that projects to be very much a work in progress during the season again.
Unfortunately for the Cowboys, they just witnessed their former offensive coordinator Kellen Moore maestro the Eagles offense to a Super Bowl title with a lot of these same principles, and they weren’t exactly new to Moore as things he didn’t try to accomplish with the Cowboys. The glaring difference in Philly for Moore was the personnel. The Eagles had a massive and dominant offensive line, the likes of which can’t be replicated anytime too soon in Dallas.
They had Saquon Barkley, among the best free agent acquisitions ever at running back. Even Cowboys fans in full support of the team using their top draft pick on Ashton Jeanty won’t be fooled into thinking he can instantly be the type of player Barkley was in 2024. Finally, the Eagles had A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith both winning their matchups on the outside at receiver with championship-level consistency. Of these three major areas on offense, the latter is also the one the Cowboys have the best chance at closing the gap even a little bit to be more like the reigning champions.
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The Cowboys have used loading up at wide receiver around Prescott as their best attempt at being “all in” before, but fell woefully short on doing so going into the now infamous actual “all in” season of a year ago. Replaced by Stephen Jones’ new term “selectively aggressive”, the Cowboys must select where they can be aggressive in adding talent to a roster that needs it badly across the board in all three phases. Dallas should see the best bang for their buck, if winning football games is the goal in mind after all, if they make this selection at wide receiver.
Even if the Cowboys show a wildly different approach to the offseason and get aggressive in the first wave of free agency and dip into the trade market, their desire for young talent on affordable rookie contracts isn’t going away anytime soon. It will remain vital to how they want to build their roster. Having new players that fit this bill and also bring added juice to the wide receiver room feels like a great way for this team to get back to competing at least within their own division, to start.
