Earlier this week Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys traded a first round pick for Amari Cooper and when it’s all said and done it’s going to go down as another bad trade made by Jones. Yes, I know Cooper is a Pro Bowler but he really hasn’t had a good season and there have been some grumblings that he doesn’t even enjoy playing football.
So far this season Cooper has 280 yards receiving and one touchdown. A closer look that number reveals that 244 of those yards came in two games and in his other three starts he only has 36 yards total. The Cowboys desperately need a receiver that is going show up each week to give Dak Prescott a constant target. A guy who has had three games total 36 yards sure doesn’t sound like that guy.
This also isn’t the first time that Jones has given up a first round pick for a wide receiver and in the other instances, they were on the wrong side of the deal. In 2000 the Cowboys traded two first round picks to the Seattle Seahawks for Joey Galloway. He played parts of four seasons with the Cowboys and never had more than 910 yards receiving or six touchdowns in a season. For two first round draft picks, that is a pretty bad fail.
In 2008 the Dallas Cowboys gave up a first, third, and six round pick for Roy Williams. He played two and a half seasons with the Cowboys and he was even worse than Galloway. His best season with the Cowboys was in 2009 when he had 596 yards and seven touchdowns.
There is a chance that Cooper does take off now that he is with the Cowboys, but it really feels like he is going to end up like Williams or Galloway, turning out as a big disappointment.
The other big issue with the Cowboys trade is they gave up a first round pick to get it done. It would be a bit different if the Cowboys were sitting in first or second place in the NFC, had real Super Bowl aspirations this season and really needed a wide receiver, maybe they should make the splashy trade. Let’s be honest about the Cowboys for a second, this team isn’t winning the Super Bowl this year, and they are probably going to have a hard time even getting into the playoffs.
The Cowboys are probably still going to end up with the 13th-18th pick in next year’s NFL draft and it’s a loaded class at wideout. They could have used that draft pick to try and get someone like A.J. Brown out of Ole Miss or Anthony Johnson out of Buffalo. Or there is no question that there would be some wideouts available during the offseason that they could have traded for or signed in free agency and still kept the first round pick to address another need the team had.
Remember the New England Patriots gave up a fifth-round pick to get Josh Gordon, and the Cowboys gave up a first rounder, the Cowboys are the real loser in this trade.
