3 offseason mistakes that reared their head in Cowboys’ Week 1 loss
Well. The Dallas Cowboys’ Week 1 contest against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers went from bad to worse to an all-out nightmare. Besides some excellent plays from Micah Parsons and Trevon Diggs and a surprisingly long field goal made by Brett Maher, there wasn’t much that went right.
From beginning to end, it was a struggle. Connor McGovern, the left guard for an already depleted offensive line, got hurt on the first drive of the game. Dak Prescott tried to stay upright and complete passes to a drop-prone CeeDee Lamb and other inexperienced wide receivers. Terence Steele had four penalties in one night, tying his season total for 2020. Jayron Kearse left the game limping. And, of course, Prescott ended up exiting the game with minutes left due to an injury that will require surgery. The team leader will be out for multiple weeks.
It was a brutal night, and the reality is that some of these issues could have been avoided if Jerry and Stephen Jones did what they needed to do this offseason. The Cowboys’ front office made minimal external moves and instead opted to wait around and hope the current roster was good enough so they could save salary cap space.
Those mistakes were crystal clear in the 19-3 loss. Let’s take a look at some of the ways the front office could’ve helped this roster be better prepared in 2022.
It is truly amazing that the problems everybody yelled at the Cowboys front office existing for months were not only ignored but then showed up literally right away. Before right away if you consider injuries.
— RJ Ochoa (@rjochoa) September 12, 2022
Just an astounding level of ignorance/arrogance to ignore it all.
3 offseason mistakes that reared their head in the Cowboys’ Week 1 loss
3. Getting Rid of Amari Cooper
Yes. We know. The front office saved a lot of money by getting rid of Amari Cooper. That’s great. However, if they wanted to get rid of him and save the cap space, they needed to use that money saved to find a worthwhile replacement — AKA not James Washington.
Cooper may not have had an excellent 2021, but you could seriously tell that Prescott was missing his WR1 against Tampa Bay.
If Jerry and Stephen really wanted Cooper gone, they needed to have a plan to replace him. They couldn’t have accounted for Washington getting hurt, but even if he was healthy, comparing Washignton to the level of Cooper’s talent is unrealistic. Plus, the only other receiver they added was Jalen Tolbert, who ended up being a healthy scratch because the coaching staff clearly didn’t feel he was ready enough for the NFL.
Then, there’s the ever-present argument that the front office got chump change in exchange for Cooper. Given the booming wide receiver market, the money saved in cap space and (basically) a fifth-round pick was not enough to get for a top receiver in the league. Had the Joneses argued for more for the trade, maybe they could’ve gotten more to help their roster.
The loss of Cooper was certainly felt against the Bucs.