The Dallas Cowboys have had trouble recently at finding success with drafting wide receivers
Over the last decade the Dallas Cowboys have struggled more often than not when it comes to drafting wide receivers.
The Dallas Cowboys have a lot of needs on their roster at the moment. Departures along the offensive line have created flashing warning signs. Even though linebacker was addressed with an external free agent, it remains a cause for concern. At the moment there is no running back on the roster worthy of total trust.
You can see how “a lot” is putting it mildly.
Buried a bit among the points of concern on the roster is the wide receiver position. Dallas has one of the best wideouts in the league in CeeDee Lamb on their team, and a returning Brandin Cooks who really found his form over the second half of last season, but outside of that there are a lot of question marks.
Jalen Tolbert figures to be the next man up in the wake of Michael Gallup’s dismissal, but even though he was a top 100 pick two years ago it is hard to trust him. Jalen Brooks showed a teeny bit last season, but are we ready to trot him out all of the time in 11 personnel?
The Cowboys will likely draft a wide receiver and unfortunately have a spotty recent track record in that department
All signs point to the Cowboys drafting a wide receiver at some point in two weeks and there is a fair amount of logic to suggest that it will happen before Day 2 of the NFL Draft is over and done with. Consider that the mothership recently dubbed the probability of a receiver being drafted as “high.”
Given that we are basically assuming that Dallas will draft a wide receiver, it would behoove us to look at their track record at doing so. Here are the wideouts selected by the team in the draft over the last 10 years, conveniently a list of 10 in itself.
- 2023, 7th: Jalen Brooks
- 2022, 3rd: Jalen Tolbert
- 2021, 5th: Simi Fehoko
- 2020, 1st: CeeDee Lamb
- 2018, 3rd: Michael Gallup
- 2018, 6th: Cedrick Wilson
- 2017, 4th: Ryan Switzer
- 2017, 6th: Noah Brown
- 2014, 5th: Devin Street
- 2013, 3rd: Terrance Williams
We have three players who are still on the team in Lamb, Tolbert and Brooks. The problem there is that Lamb may or may not hold out amid contract negotiations with the team and that we just noted how not-exactly-trustworthy Tolbert and Brooks are.
As noted earlier, Michael Gallup was released by the team this offseason, but he was certainly a great player for the team over the life of his rookie contract. Cedrick Wilson really came into his own near the end of his time in Dallas, but then he left in free agency and we have missed him ever since. You can offer a similar sort of thought on Noah Brown who did not really emerge until his final days with the team before he also left. It should also be said that Terrance Williams was also quite productive before signing a second deal with the team.
To be fair this list does not include undrafted wide receivers who have helped the team in various capacities in this stretch. KaVontae Turpin and Lucky Whitehead come to mind in that regard. Also absent here are players acquired via trade like the aforementioned Cooks or Amari Cooper.
Among this list you will (for now at least) only find two players who signed second contracts with the team that were intended to be pass-catchers when they did so (this keeps Noah Brown out of the discussion, all due respect to him). Our names are Michael Gallup and Terrance Williams.
Gallup and Williams were drafted six and 11 years ago, respectively, so it has been a minute since Dallas found someone who they wanted back when it came time to pay them a little bit more seriously. It is obviously likely that Lamb is added to this list, hopefully in short order, but ever since drafting him the Cowboys have struggled at finding receivers in general by way of the NFL draft.
Given the lack of depth at the wide receiver spot in general and the likelihood of the team selecting one in the draft, the pick needs to be a significant hit right away. The Cowboys won’t be entirely depending on their would-be wide receiver who they draft, but there will be a significant amount of responsibility placed upon his shoulders.
We live in a time where the draft classes are generally deep at wide receiver given the evolution of the college game and this year is no different. But ever since finding a generational wide receiver in CeeDee Lamb in the first round (maybe pay that guy!), the Cowboys have not been able to get a proper second piece of the pie.
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