"Eagles took a step forward" - Former NFL player believes Cowboys will be dethroned as NFC East leaders
The Dallas Cowboys enjoyed ruling the NFC East in 2021. However, after losing several key pieces, many pundits are in doubt. One analyst gave his reasoning for his doubts about the team, boiling it down to the team's wide receivers. Speaking on Speak for Yourself, NFL analyst Emmanuel Acho explained why losing Amari Cooper hurts the team. Here's how he put it:
“We're going [with] what we know it takes to win and the NFL now [needs] two dudes [at] the wide receiver position. When the Cincinnati Bengals played in the Super Bowl. First, the Los Angeles Rams. The Bengals had Ja'marr Chase [and] Tee Higgins. The Rams had Odell Beckham [and] Cooper Kupp."
He continued, listing more teams with two solid weapons out wide:
"The Bucs had Antonio Brown [and] Mike Evans. The Chiefs had Tyreek Hill [and] Travis Kelce. If you want to talk about the Conference Championship games, the real good teams this past year, the Bills had Gabriel Davis and Stefon Diggs."
Jerry Jones says CeeDee Lamb is better than Amari Cooper in every way. Go Jerry go. Now on @undisputed
He went on to explain how the NFC East is catching up to the top teams in the league:
"Again, the Chiefs this year [had] Tyreek Hill [and] Travis Kelce showed up that day. [It] takes two dudes at wide receiver. The Eagles [have] AJ Brown [and] DeVonta Smith. The Commanders [have] Scary Terry. Jahan Dotson, but the Cowboys [had] Amari Cooper [and] CeeDee Lamb."
The best way for the #Cowboys to replace Amari Cooper and Cedrick Wilson in the offense is to use more of Tony Pollard.
Of the 15 games Pollard played last season, he had 10 or fewer touches eight times.
That can't happen again.
He wrapped up his point, saying other teams got their top two receivers while the Cowboys ended up with one:
"When I talked about everybody else taking steps forward, [the] Commanders took a step forward. [The] Eagles took a step forward. [The] Commanders had one last year. The Eagles got their two, [the] Commanders got their two, [the] Cowboys had two last year [but] they lost one. It takes two.”
What the Cowboys lost in trading Amari Cooper
Before trading Amari Cooper away, the Cowboys had enjoyed his production for roughly 3.5 seasons. In that time, the wide receiver had two seasons in which he earned at least 1,100 yards per Pro Football Reference. His worst season was arguably his first year in Dallas when he was traded mid-season to the team.
Still, he earned 725 yards and six touchdowns with just nine games of action. His worst entire season came in 2021 when the wide receiver earned 865 yards and eight touchdowns in 14 starts. Many argue that rookie standout CeeDee Lamb cut into the wide receiver's targets.
Nevertheless, the team decided it was time to move on and traded the wide receiver to the Cleveland Browns this spring. Will Dallas be left regretting the move, or will it be a case of addition by subtraction?