The last decade has seen more misses than hits for the Cowboys in terms of drafted wide receivers
Conditions of wide receivers drafted
The Dallas Cowboys currently have a roster full with needs. There are now flashing warning flags for departures along the offensive line. It’s still a reason for concern even though linebacker was addressed with an outside free agency. There isn’t a running back on the roster right now who can be completely trusted.
You understand how, to put it politely, “a lot” is.
The wide receiver position is rather hidden amid the roster’s areas of concern.
With returning quarterback Brandin Cooks, who truly rediscovered his form over the second half of the previous season, and one of the finest wideouts in the league in CeeDee Lamb, Dallas has a lot of question marks around them.
Following Michael Gallup’s departure, Jalen Tolbert is expected to be the next man up, but despite being a top 100 pick two years ago, it is difficult to trust him. Although Jalen Brooks made a tiny bit of progress last season, are we ready to start him as the starting wide receiver in the 11 man?
The Cowboys, who have a poor recent record in that area, will probably select a wide receiver in the draft.
The Cowboys are expected to select a wide receiver in the second round of the NFL Draft, and all indications point to it happening sooner rather than later in the next two weeks. Taking into account that the mothership recently declared the likelihood of a receiver being drafted to be “high,”
It would be prudent for us to examine Dallas’ past performance in selecting wide receivers, given we are essentially presuming that they will do so. Here is a handy list of the wideouts the team has chosen in the draft during the past ten years, compiled by the organization themselves.
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 still have Lamb, Tolbert, and Brooks as three of our guys. The issue there is that Lamb might or might not be with the team during contract talks, and we just saw how unreliable Brooks and Tolbert are.
As previously said, the organization terminated Michael Gallup this summer, but during his rookie contract, he was undoubtedly a fantastic player for the team. Near the end of his Dallas career, Cedrick Wilson truly started to shine. However, he left in free agency, and we have missed him ever since.
It should be mentioned that Terrance Williams was also quite successful before to agreeing to a second contract with the team.
To be fair, this list excludes undrafted wide receivers who have contributed to the club in a number of ways over this recent period. In that sense, KaVontae Turpin and Lucky Whitehead spring to mind. Players that were acquired by trade, such as Cooks and Amari Cooper, are also missing from this list.
As of right now, the only two players on this list who inked second contracts with the organization were supposed to be pass catchers; with all due respect, Noah Brown is left out of this conversation. Terrance Williams and Michael Gallup are our names.
It has been a minute since Dallas discovered someone they wanted back when it came time to pay them a little bit more seriously—Gallup and Williams were drafted six and eleven years ago, respectively. Lamb will undoubtedly be added to this list—ideally quickly—but the Cowboys have had trouble selecting receivers in the NFL draft in general ever since they selected him.
The pick needs to be a big impact immediately because of the general lack of depth at wide receiver and the possibility that the team will select one in the draft.
Although the Cowboys won’t be totally dependent on the wide receiver they select in the draft, he will bear a great deal of the team’s burden.
Given the development of college football, we live in a period when wide receivers are typically deep in the draft classes, and this year is no exception. However, since selecting CeeDee Lamb, a wide receiver of a generation, in the first round (maybe pay that man!), the Cowboys have failed to get a fair second-round pick.
