Looming Questions of a Consistently Inconsistent Offense

DALLAS – The more things change, the more they stay the same. As the Dallas Cowboys gear up for another season, they’ll do so with more questionable offseason moves in play.

This offseason they lost key players in Randy Gregory, La’el Collins, and No. 1 wide receiver, Amari Cooper. Adding insult to injury, wide receiver Michael Gallup tore his ACL late in the season and may not be ready to start week 1.

The question in the room for receivers is, who is wide receiver No. 1 now? Both Gallup and CeeDee Lamb have made it known they are capable of being an X-factor for the offense, but it’s not to go overlooked that Lamb was greatly encouraged to wear No. 88.

Spectators over the years have noticed how inconsistent the Dallas offense can be even when the talent on the roster looks well on paper. Former players, such as Dez Bryant and Cole Beasley, among others have pointed a good amount of blame for this on the front office.

Many know professional sports to be a thing of business and not loyalty. Players have alluded to their production being toyed with especially around contract time. That doesn’t dismiss a players ability to fall short when their number is called, nor does it mean that the totality of failures rest on one portion of an organization solely.

There’s plenty of blame to go around, but change must start at the top.

Cooper has faced many injuries over his career and was still able to produce at high levels when on the field. In 2018, Dallas traded a No. 1 draft pick to acquire Cooper who gave a spark to their collapsing offense.

Cooper performed so well post trade that Dallas gave him a 5-year/$100 million contract extension. Offensive woes last season led him to make a remark about wanting more targets and on the horizon of his $20 million salary for 2022 becoming guaranteed, Dallas traded him to Cleveland. A similar trend can be noticed among some of Dallas’s notable talents prior to Coopers arrival.

Teams strain as much out of a player as they can and in many cases when it’s negotiation time or a player voices concern over how they feel less included in the game plan, said player is usually exiting stage left soon after. There’s a reason players receive incentives on milestones when they are allowed the opportunity to do so.

An interesting quote from Cooper just may be highlighting this problem once again. In an interview with 96.7 The Ticket, Cooper said that he believes Lamb is up for the task of being the teams No. 1 wide receiver should Offensive Coordinator, Kellen Moore decide to “feature him”.

Moore’s early stages as an offensive coordinator seemed to point to good signs for Dallas after enduring years of a stagnant offense under other leadership. Say what you want about last year’s season opening loss to the Buccaneers, but Dallas went toe to toe with them. Unfortunately, as Moore got deeper into the season, things became stale again.

In light of Cooper’s choice words, a few questions remain. How much blame should an organization take for a players production? Who’s the team’s wide receiver No. 1 at this point? Can Kellen avoid stagnant play calling in 2022?

Stay tuned for the next episode of “As The Cowboys Turn”.