If you polled Dallas Cowboys fans about which position the team would take in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft, most would have said wide receiver. That did not come to pass, as Dallas commendably took the highest player on their board with every pick.
Now, though, the front office is working diligently behind the scenes to add a new pass-catcher for Dak Prescott. The name everyone keeps coming back to is Amari Cooper after Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported after the draft that there is "building team interest" in a Cooper reunion.
While Dallas is open to trading for a WR, Cooper might be the safest bet of them all given his familiarity with Prescott and several other players on the team. Well, a reunion is now very realistic following an update from ESPN insider Jeremy Fowler.
Cowboys reuniting with Amari Cooper just got very realistic
Appearing on SportsCenter, Fowler reiterated that Dallas is on the hunt for a receiver and there is "some mutual interest" between the team and Cooper in a reunion.
This is a significant update. Harris' initial report did not indicate whether Cooper himself was interested in coming back to North Texas.
The Cowboys infamously shipped Cooper to Cleveland following the 2021 season and there has been whispers that Jerry Jones traded him because he missed games while unvaccinated when COVID-19 was still running rampant around the country.
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Cooper tested positive for the virus in November of 2021 and missed tilts against the Chiefs and Raiders in alignment with NFL protocols, which require a 10-day quarantine for unvaccinated players. The Cowboys lost both matchups.
Jones understandably was not thrilled about the situation.
"Nobody is saying he [Cooper] isn't outstanding, but this is a classic case of how it can impact a team," Jones said, via NFL Network. "At the end of the day, this is team. You cannot win anything individually. ... The point is, it popped us. This did pop us."
Fast forward to January and the five-time Pro Bowler was fined $14,650 for violating the league's COVID-19 protocols after he attended a Dallas Mavericks game and did not wear a mask.
It was a messy situation, but it does not justify the team's decision to trade Cooper. It's one thing to get rid of one of your most important offensive players, but the Joneses got a historically bad haul for the former first-round pick.
That Fowler is hearing there is mutual interest in the two sides suggests the whole COVID-19 ordeal is now water under the bridge. If that is the case, the front office needs to take the necessary next steps to make this happen.