CUT COOP LOOSE
By Mark Halpern
With the new season on the brink of starting, many top players from around the league have been cut/released due to the salary cap. At the start of the new season, Dallas was over the cap limit by 20 million. That doesn’t seem like a lot for a football team, but it can mean two good players.
The first thing that Jerry and company did was take the high-value contracts of Dak Prescott and Zack Martin and convert a chunk of their salary into a signing bonus. This is nothing new all teams do this to free up cap space. That was enough to get under the cap. However, they still needed more cap room to make plays on re-signing their players, sign a free agent or two and then have the rookie contracts to contend with. Dallas had to do more, and they sure did.
Like every #1 receiver in Dallas over the last 10-12 years, they have had problems with Wide Receivers and their rants on and off the field. We lived through the Terrell Owens and Dez Saga, and the Cowboys weren’t going to live it again with Amari Cooper. When he came over from the Raiders, Amari Cooper was hungry and wanted to prove that he deserved to be the #1 in Dallas, and he did. He played as best as anyone could, making tough catches and dominating the field. However, sometimes this gets to their heads, and they act out. So, to prevent this, Dallas traded Cooper last night to the Browns for a 5th and 6th round pick, and Cleveland gets Cooper and a 5th. This just freed up 20 million, and every Cowboy fan is watching one thing: free agent Bobby Wagner who has been making goo-goo eyes at Jerry Jones. He is not cheap, but he is still one of the top 5 linebackers in football. So we will see what happens on that front.
Overall I loved Amari Cooper, but I saw a decrease in his abilities over the last year. Yes, he was injured, and it slowed him down, but there were times this didn’t seem right and listening to his mouth on and off and his stupid comment about Dak. I wish Amari nothing but the best in Cleveland, and I hope Baker and him make some good connections, and that is how the old man sees it.
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