The Dallas Cowboys are having a good season, and they don't really have time to be worried about the ones that got away. But you still can't help but wonder what could have been when you see certain players who used to don the star on their helmets now thriving with other NFL teams.
And so it goes in the NFL. Some players get into new (or even just different) situations and for whatever reason, something clicks. Sometimes, the Cowboys let go of good players and get burned for it. At any rate, let's look at some former Dallas Cowboys who are thriving on new or different teams now in 2023.
Former Dallas Cowboys players playing great in 2023 on new teams
5. Noah Brown, WR (Texans)
Watching Noah Brown flourish is a little more bittersweet than most loses for Cowboys fans, but it's kind of like watching one of your kids grow up and do well outside the house. You know you did right by them, even though you wish they were still around.
While you're certainly excited for Brown doing well in Houston, you can't help but wish the Cowboys had held onto him just a little bit longer. Browns has been exploding for Houston as of late, and you might be shocked at some of the numbers he's posted. He had 172 yards on seven receptions against the Cincinnati Bengals. He had 153 yards on six catches against the Buccaneers, along with a touchdown.
Brown has made contributions in all five of the games he's played, but he's really heating up lately, and he's averaging 20.9 yards per reception this season so far.
4. Amari Cooper, WR (Browns)
Let's get this one out of the way, because it's undoubtedly a sore subject at this point. The Dallas Cowboys and their fans may be happy for Noah Brown thriving with another team, but every big game Amari Cooper has for the Cleveland Browns is like another drop of acid in everyone's eyeballs.
It's not that Cowboys fans are upset at Amari Cooper's success, but every big game he has as a member of the Browns has Cowboys fans singing Justin Bieber...
That should be me, that should be me...
In all seriousness, trading away Amari Cooper and not figuring out a way to prioritize bringing him back is one of the biggest mistakes the Cowboys have made in this present window. That trade significantly depleted the WR position where the Cowboys have been scraping and clawing to find solutions, especially since Michael Gallup hasn't performed up to the contract he received.
Even with QB issues in Cleveland, Cooper is up over 700 yards in nine games this season, averaging over 17 yards per reception with a pair of touchdowns. The Cowboys desperately miss his presence in the passing game and he's been an absolute steal for Cleveland.
3. Dalton Schultz, TE (Texans)
The Dallas Cowboys are slowly but surely finding they might have something at the tight end position in former fourth-round pick Jake Ferguson, but you can't help but keep tabs on what Dalton Schultz is doing for the Houston Texans so far this season.
After receiving the franchise tag from the Cowboys last offseason, Schultz was given a pretty modest one-year deal to play for DeMeco Ryans and the Texans, and he might have earned himself some more money on the 2024 free agent market, perhaps even to stick around Houston.
Schultz is averaging 11.4 yards per reception for the Texans, a career-high, and he's less than a yard off of his career-best for yards per game right now at 46.8. With four touchdowns in nine games, Schultz looks like he has a shot to match or maybe even beat his career-high of eight touchdowns back in 2021 for Dallas.
When the Cowboys let Schultz go, I thought it was a clear chance to upgrade the upside at the position. There never seemed to be anything overly spectacular about him, but sometimes when you see a guy like this thrive in a totally new environment, you start to appreciate more the things that made them productive that went beyond just being one of the only outlets for Dak Prescott.
Schultz finds soft spots in the defense, he's effective in the red zone, and he knows how to move the chains. He's already got 22 first-down receptions this season.
2. Greg Zuerlein, K (Jets)
Although a lot of people like to make fun of college kickers these days, it's pretty crazy to see how many teams have struggled to find consistency in the NFL at the kicker position over the last couple of years.
The Dallas Cowboys, unfortunately, had a major debacle at this position in the 2022-23 postseason, when Brett Maher missed about 68 extra points in a row after making 91 percent of his field goals during the season.
The Cowboys found themselves in a similar situation as many other teams in the 2023 offseason: looking for a new kicker. They seem to have found one in Brandon Aubrey, but it wasn't that long ago that the Cowboys had Greg Zuerlein on their roster, and maybe they should have just stuck with him.
Kickers are a lot like relief pitchers in baseball. Guys go through streaks of being hot and cold, and oftentimes a reliever with a high ERA in one city will go to the next and be dominant. Kickers who go through a funk in one NFL city will oftentimes get cut, land elsewhere, and suddenly figure things out.
Zuerlein has been basically the only source of consistent "offense" for the New York Jets this season, and has made 22 field goals. That's the second-most in the NFL so far this season.
The Cowboys certainly aren't complaining, though, as Brandon Aubrey is one of just two NFL kickers right now to have made 100 percent of his field goal attempts, including an impressive 4-for-4 from 50 and beyond.
1. Connor McGovern, OG (Buffalo Bills)
The Dallas Cowboys have done a pretty solid job of developing offensive linemen over the last 10 years, and it hasn't mattered if the players were first-round picks, undrafted free agents, or anything in between. One of the players who obviously developed well in Dallas was former Cowboys interior lineman Connor McGovern.
By the way, can we just acknowledge once again how shocking it is that there are two interior offensive linemen in the NFL right now that share this name? What are the odds...
At any rate, McGovern was a third-round pick of the Cowboys back in 2019, and he wound up getting placed on IR early in his rookie season and didn't get any playing time until year two. He started 14 games for Dallas between 2020 and 2021, but got a chance to earn his free agent contract with Buffalo when Dallas started him for 15 games in 2022.
McGovern landed a three-year deal worth over $22 million with the Buffalo Bills and has been doing a great job for them in the first 10 games of the year as a starting guard. He's played over 600 total snaps this season and has allowed just one sack.