Cowboys should look into released WR Andy Isabella if he clears waivers
The Dallas Cowboys season has gone along swimmingly after their Week 1 defeat, especially in light of Dak Prescott’s injury. On the back of their defense, they’ve managed to ring off three straight victories behind the elite ability of their defensive front and the intelligent quarterbacking of Cooper Rush.
They still have another level or two that they can get to though. First off, you have to consider the return of Prescott.
That, in itself, should allow them to continue to operate at a high level considering the relative ability of the guys playing. The Cowboys’ offense is succeeding already. However, they can still become even more dynamic with a few tweaks to help things look even brighter.
Basically, if this offense had one more guy that could consistently take the top off in a straight-line manner, then things could potentially really look scary. And no, this offense isn’t or shouldn’t be the Kansas City Chiefs, the Los Angeles Chargers, or the Las Vegas Raiders where they want to toss it all around the yard. However, they are thriving off of the run and play-action.
And with the play action comes shot plays.
The Dallas Cowboys should consider adding WR Andy Isabella to help their play-action way of playing
The #AZCardinals have released WR Andy Isabella, who was subject to trade interest the last few years. They signed Billy Price off the #Raiders practice squad.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 4, 2022
That’s where that vertical threat guy could really be worth his weight in gold and at this exact moment, one of those guys just hit the streets.
For clarity, the Cowboys shouldn’t spend anything close to big money to bring Andy Isabella in at this point, meaning taking him off the waiver wire and thus the remainder of his $1.1 million for the year. They should hope to be able to wait until he clears waivers to bring him in for the minimum on a trial basis, at the very least.
With the preview and semantics out of the way, here’s the real deal. Yes, Michael Gallup has traditionally been the vertical guy.
However, he’s the No. 2 guy now and possibly even 1A, depending on how you look at it. So… why relegate him to just being that, especially when he is skilled at converting on deep cross routes as well — something that could be helped along by a vertical threat like Isabella.
Isabella’s presence could also help CeeDee Lamb with his underneath stuff that allows him to do what he does, which is to gain yards after the catch (YAC).
Let’s talk about the other pass catchers, too.
Noah Brown is just a tough catch guy. He doesn’t care where the play needs to be made, he’ll just make it.
They’ve really relied on Dalton Schultz to be that vertical seams guy, but he hasn’t quite found his stride yet in 2022, and he is also returning from injury. Nobody else has really established themselves on that receiver unit, so they would fall in line, behind or right along with Isabella. The former Cardinal is known to be able to take the top off of defensive units if deployed properly.
Being able to do that will also factor into the run game. Having defenders have to worry about what might happen deeper down the field only allows the runners more space.
And that, my friends, takes you right back to the start of it all: the play-action pass game. It’s cyclic, it works, and if Isabella can clear waivers (allowing them to pay him a low price) they should totally look into it for the reasons described above.
