Jerry Jones loves to compare talent to other great talent he’s seen before and this in small part lead to the Dallas Cowboys trading for Amari Cooper formerly of the Raiders by way of SEC powerhouse Alabama Crimson tide. Jerry mentioned in a recent radio interview following the trade that he saw a poetry to the way Lance Alworth ran routes and played football, mentioning Amari invoked memories of lance when he was a freshman all those years ago at Arkansas.
Numbers back up Jerry’s trade?..
When you look at albeit a specified area of stats you can see Jerry may be on to something. Next gen stats on NFL has Amari generating 3.8 yards on avg of separation per route run. Good for 8th among everyone. When you weed out the low usage guys ie. Valdez-scantling, Geoff Swaim etc. Cooper is consistently getting separation on a level HIGHER than that of guys like Jarvis Landry- 3.4, Cooper Kupp-3.6, Julian Edelman 3.3.
Bludgeon you so we can take the big shot..
Remember that the cowboys want to provide “Dak friendly” pieces? This is the trade the Cowboys had to make, especially considering the lack of top talent at the wide receiver position in the coming draft. Digging into how the cowboys attempt to run their offense you notice that a large portion of it is devoted to running back Ezekiel Elliott. Thus making it all the more important for the cowboys to hit on their play action and shots down the field. That’s what this offense is meant to do, bludgeon you into loading the box, wait for one on one matchup’s on the outside and take a shot. Considering how frequently the cowboys would miss on these throws bringing in a receiver who helps the quarterback have even larger throwing windows seems like not only the right move but the only move they could make in order to help Dak. Especially considering a rookie receiver would not be able to provide separation the way Mr. Cooper does.
It might not work out but at least it’s not a blind swing at the fences..
Color me impressed with the wherewithal to identify the Dallas Cowboys’ top need and swing for the fences here whether it works out or not we’ll find out in the next year and a half before being on the hook to decide whether or not the Cowboys want to commit big, long term money to the wide receiver position again.
