Cowboys’ Amari Cooper trade among Bleacher Report’s worst free agency moves

The Dallas Cowboys have had an interesting offseason, to say the least. For the most part, the front office has chosen to stay almost entirely in-house with its decisions thus far. However, one player who they seemed to know they were planning on letting go for a long while was wide receiver Amari Cooper. Cooper made $20 million in 2021 and had one of his worst years since entering the NFL. After the team lost to the San Francisco 49ers, the talks of Cooper leaving the team quickly began.

In the end, Dallas ended up sending the receiver to the Cleveland Browns in exchange for a fifth and sixth-round draft pick. Everyone had opinions on this, from fans to analysts to current and former players. While some felt lucky to get anything at all in return for Cooper, most felt the trade was a steal for Cleveland. The writers at Bleacher Report agree.

Bleacher Report’s Ian Wharton recently put together a list of the eight worst moves in the early part of free agency so far. According to Wharton, the absolute worst move was the Washington Commanders signing quarterback Carson Wentz. Other bad moves included New England trading Shaq Mason, Jacksonville’s Jay Jones contract, and the Steelers signing Mitch Trubisky. At No. 3 on the list, Wharton said that Dallas trading Cooper and re-signing Michael Gallup would come back to haunt the franchise.

Wharton brought up an interesting point about the front office’s wide receiver decisions. It’s one thing for Jerry Jones to cut a receiver he publicly talked poorly about. It’s another thing to trade a top receiver and instead keep a receiver coming off an ACL injury for a whopping $12.5 million a year. Plus, Gallup was far less productive than Cooper in 2021.

Bleacher Report listed Cowboys trading Amari Cooper and signing Michael Gallup as one of the top 8 worst free agency moves

To add insult to injury, Dallas also let Cedrick Wilson, who would have been a great WR3 option, go to the Miami Dolphins. So, not only is Cooper gone, but the front office still has to provide more depth at wide receiver. Wharton said the Joneses should have restructured Cooper’s contract in order to maintain their strong WR Trio. It’s also worth adding that Dak Prescott was statistically significantly more successful when Cooper was in games.

Here is more of why Wharton thought this was a poor decision:

"“With the roster turnover, it’s possible their best chance to win a Super Bowl was in 2021. Trading Cooper and re-signing Gallup was supposed to open cap room for a major acquisition such as Von Miller, but Dallas has only hemorrhaged talent. Randy Gregory also left the Cowboys, signingwith the Denver Broncos in a last-minute reversal.”"

The front office has made a lot of questionable decisions and non-decisions so far this March. Do you agree that traded Cooper and keeping Gallup was one of the worst decisions this offseason?