4 Cowboys who were a total disappointment in 2022

2. Michael Gallup, Wide Receiver

The main reason Dallas mistakenly thought they didn’t need Amari Cooper was the presence of Michael Gallup. Unfortunately, they seemed to have under-valued Cooper while over-valuing Gallup.

A former third-round pick in 2018, Gallup has been a good receiver throughout his career. He even had 1,107 yards receiving in 2019. However, he saw his numbers go down in each of the next two seasons with just 843 yards in 2020 and then 445 in 2021.

Injuries were the reason for the decline in 2021, but that was also why it made little sense to give him a five-year extension while moving on from Cooper. As explosive as Gallup can be, he was injured for much of the 2021 campaign, and then when he started to look like himself again, he tore his ACL late in the season.

That led to him missing the first three weeks of 2022 and when he did come back, it was clear he wasn’t 100 percent. Gallup didn’t have the same speed that saw him continually get downfield early in his career and finished with just 39 receptions for 424 yards and four touchdowns in 14 games.

For much of the season, he was outperformed by Noah Brown, a former seventh-round pick who never had more than 184 yards in a campaign before this year.

Going forward, they need to decide what to do at wide receiver. Brown is a free agent and they need to make sure they have a reliable No. 2 option across from CeeDee Lamb. They’re likely going to make a move in the upcoming draft but there’s a chance they’ll need to keep Brown as insurance — just in case the player they paid to be their long-term answer continues to underwhelm.