Cowboys News: One year after the trade, Amari Cooper continues to prove the Cowboys right

Amari Cooper is a ‘big-time playmaker’ who is proving Cowboys right- Todd Archer, ESPN

One full year after the Amari Cooper trade, the deal continues to look like one of the better in Cowboys history.

Since joining the Cowboys, Cooper is 10th in the NFL in receptions, fifth in yards and second in touchdown catches.

So far this season, he has caught 38 passes for 621 yards and five touchdowns. If not for a quadriceps bruise that limited him to one catch for 3 yards in three snaps against the New York Jets, Cooper, 25, would be on pace to threaten Cowboys records held by Michael Irvin and Dez Bryant (receptions, receiving yards and touchdowns). In his first 16 regular-season games with the Cowboys, he caught 91 passes for 1,346 yards and 11 touchdowns.

In Sunday’s 37-10 win against the Philadelphia Eagles, Cooper caught five passes for 106 yards, an impressive feat considering there were serious doubts he would be able to play because of the injury. But teammates say Cooper looked phenomenal in his one day of practice leading into the game.

”I didn’t learn anything about him,” coach Jason Garrett said after the victory. “It’s the stuff I already knew and reaffirmed. He’s a big-time playmaker. He’s as tough as they come. He battled back from this thing and just played at a really high level. He’s a difference-making player for us.”

Jourdan Lewis Continues to Shine, Needs More Playing Time - Matthew Lenix, Inside The Star

The past two weeks Jourdan Lewis has made a strong case he needs to be on the field much more.

Lewis caught a break recently, though, when starting nickel corner Anthony Brown left the Cowboys Week 6 matchup against the New York Jets with a hamstring injury. Lewis, who obviously had been chomping at the bit to make his presence felt didn't waste any time reminding everyone how talented he is.

Lewis would not only register four tackles but he intercepted Sam Darnold inside the 10 in the third quarter. As we all know, turnovers have been the achilles heel for the entire defensive unit for years so to see Lewis come in and get one in a matter of minutes was encouraging.

With Brown ruled out against the Philadelphia Eagles, Lewis would get another shot to show what kind of a player he is, and once again, he didn't disappoint. In a dominant 37-10 win, Lewis had four tackles and his first NFL sack. Simply put, Lewis makes plays whenever he's on the field.

It's not like Brown is a bad corner or anything, he's not at all. In fact, he could start for a lot of teams in the NFL as their top corner or be a solid number two. However, in 2017 he was benched in favor of Chidobe Awuzie in Week 13 and remained a backup for the rest of the season. With this latest setback, Lewis could find himself with a permanent role, that is if Richard can look past his height and focus on who's the best option to put on the field out of Lewis and Brown.

3 & Out: 3 Players To Watch After The Bye - Rob Phillips, dallascowboys.com

Here are three players to look out for after this weekend’s Bye Week.

Randall Cobb is on the verge of a breakout game. Cobb currently ranks fifth on the team with 19 catches for 239 yards and one touchdown. (A sore back kept him out of the Cowboys’ loss to the Jets.) That’s a 43-catch season pace, slightly higher than his 38-catch season for the Packers last year in nine appearances.

But, with so many options on offense, Cobb doesn’t have to be a high-volume receiver here. And, as always, stats are a little misleading. He and quarterback Dak Prescott have just missed on a few big plays: a would-be touchdown in the first quarter against the Saints; a would-be key third down conversion driving near midfield later that game; a 74-yard touchdown catch nullified by penalty against the Dolphins. He also got stopped just before the goal line on a 15-yard catch Sunday – the offense scored a play later.

Cobb has brought a strong veteran presence to the locker room. He’s still a dangerous player working from the slot. And he’s also quite familiar with three of the Cowboys’ nine remaining opponents, having played the Vikings, Lions and Bears twice a year in the past. The best could be yet to come.

Cowboys, Kellen Moore Week 7 play calls were predictable, but worked -C. Joseph Wright , Cowboys Wire

Just how should we look at the work Kellen Moore did on Sunday?

Dallas ran 70 offensive plays against the Eagles. Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott took 34 snaps from under center and 36 in the shotgun. This under-center-versus-shotgun ratio (34 snaps from under center against 36 from in shotgun) is similar to Weeks 1-3. The first three weeks were balanced: 32-34 against the Giants, 32-36 in Washington, and 32-39 versus the Dolphins. But the following three weeks saw a major shift to the shotgun: 18-39 in New Orleans, 21-52 against the Packers, and 26-56 versus the Jets.

The trend here is obviously when the Cowboys establish a lead (Giants, Redskins, Dolphins, Eagles), Moore is able maintain offensive balance both in terms of formations (under center versus shotgun) and in terms of the run-versus-pass. When they fall behind (Jets, Packers), they are forced to utilize the shotgun, and call more passes, far more frequently.

The Saints game was a bit of an anomaly because they were never behind more than six points but still went almost exclusively to the shotgun and they passed far more often then they attempted to run. It will be interesting to see what kind of play-calling Moore uses when next the Cowboys have a contest in which the score is close throughout the entire game.

Dallas Cowboys: Will Randy Gregory be reinstated this season? - Matt Aaron, FanSided's The Landry Hat

A forgotten Dallas Cowboy, Randy Gregory. Will the defensive end be able to play this season?

On July 12, Mike Fisher broke the story that Gregory’s team would be submitting their petition for reinstatement just a few days later, on July 15.

As Fisher explained in a recent story, if that had happened, the NFL should have made a ruling within 60 days. But they didn’t. And no one is explaining why. Gregory’s not talking, and neither are his lawyer, the NFL, or the Cowboys. The whole thing seems a little like a whodunit. (Might it have been Colonel Mustard in the billiards room with a candlestick?)

So what happened? Did Gregory’s team balk at submitting the paperwork? Did the player himself fall off the wagon once again? Did they simply delay submittal for some unknown reason? Once again, no one knows.

The possibilities going forward are the following:

1. Randy Gregory’s career is really and truly finally over.

2. There was just a bump in the road, and he’ll be reinstated before the end of the season.

3. During the offseason, the NFL will decide to lift the marijuana ban, in light of society’s changing attitudes, and we’ll see Mr. Gregory back in a Cowboys uniform in 2020. Or they won’t, but reinstate him by next season anyway.

As of now, these are all just guesses. Personally, I would love to see Randy Gregory get another shot. At his best, Gregory is an exciting game-changing player. Besides, who doesn’t love redemption stories? Even with Robert Quinn, adding Gregory to the team would still be an improvement over the other backups.

BTB Podcast

There are important questions that we have to ask ourselves during the bye week. We did that on the latest episode of The Ocho.

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