Getty Cowboys OC Kellen Moore
Three elite wide receivers roaming the same chalk lines, and a single ball to meet them in-between. It’s a good problem to have — but a problem nonetheless — for the Dallas Cowboys.
On the surface, you do not envy quarterback Dak Prescott, tasked with getting the aforementioned pigskin into his weapons’ hands on a game-by-game, if drive-by-drive basis.
Digging deeper, though, your empathy should be directed toward offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, whose primary directive revolves around deciding whether Amari Cooper, CeeDee Lamb, or Michael Gallup is satiated on any given snap. This, to say nothing about placating running backs Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard, tight ends Blake Jarwin and Dalton Schultz … and so on, and so on.
That’s why they pay Moore the big bucks. And with a big salary comes bigger expectations. The wunderkind play-caller must unobjectively toe the line between responsible and reckless, equally distributing voluminous shares of generational NFL stock for a team with legitimate championship aspirations.
It certainly can be done.
The plan can — should — work as scripted, keeping all involved satisfied.
But only if one non-negotiable condition is met …
“Winning. That’s [h]ow everybody will be happy,” Cooper told reporters Tuesday, via Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News.
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Cooper Updates Status, Details Ankle Surgery
The $100 million wideout watched Tuesday as teammate DeMarcus Lawrence passed his physical and was removed from the Physically Unable to Perform list. No such luck, yet, for Cooper, who underwent ankle surgery in January and suffered irritation in June, prompting the Cowboys to delay his 2021 debut.
“I wouldn’t say I’m quite 100 percent yet, to be completely candid, but I’m real close,” Cooper told reporters Tuesday, via ESPN’s Todd Archer. “I can do everything, maybe a little better, just because I’ve been rehabbing so hard. Just trying to be the best Amari Cooper that I can be, trying to be better than I’ve ever been. I’ve been talking to myself a lot lately about how I want this year to be different than any other year that I’ve played football.”
Cooper clarified that he went under the knife to remove bone spurs from the ankle, days after finishing the 2020 campaign as Dallas’ leading receiver with 1,114 yards and five touchdowns on a career-best 92 catches. Which, in hindsight, motivated the 27-year-old — perhaps like never before.
“The thing about being injured is it reminds you about how much you love the game,” Cooper said, per ESPN. “You see guys who get injured, and they realize they don’t want to work through this process anymore, and they retire. That’s happened a lot. It’s just shown me how much I want to be there. I miss it so much. I never wanted to run a route so bad. And, so, in that thought process, you just grind to get back healthy, and just try to be the best you can be.”
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Amari Cooper Sends Pointed Message to Cowboys OC Kellen Moore