Why the Cowboys have no choice but to add an outside receiver as soon as possible

Yesterday was a breif scare for the Dallas Cowboys. The keyword being brief, but the Cowboys were shopwn what it might be like to have a catastrophic-level crisis on their hands. Thankfully, Dallas escaped with wide receiver CeeDee Lamb suffering just a minor injury, but this scare itself absolutely needs to be a wake-up call for the entire organization.

This team needs to add an outside receiver, and they need to do it right now.

Let’s say Lamb was to have gone down yesterday with a serious injury, and he was forced to miss an extended amount of time. Well, nothing is ever certain in the NFL, but the Cowboys would have been by all accounts and purposes, for lack of a better word, screwed.

After James Washington went down with an injury back at the beginning of camp, Dallas’ wide receiver depth, which was already not great prior to the injury, got even worse. Outside of Lamb and Washington, the Cowboys do not employ another receiver on their roster that has a touchdown reception in their career.

Not exactly a winning strategy.

The Cowboys have the third-most available cap space in the NFL and saved a good chunk of money by moving on from Amari Cooper and La’el Collins this offseason, so they have absolutely no reason to not spend some money and bring in an outside wideout.

Sure, their options aren’t great. If the Cowboys were to sign a free agent receiver this close to the regular season, they’d likely have to pick one from the group of Will Fuller, T.Y. Hilton, Cole Beasley, or Emmanuel Sanders. While at this point of their careers none of these guys are close to a Pro Bowl-caliber wideout, they still would be a huge insurance policy against what they currently have on their roster.

None of these guys would require a multi-year commitment to sign, so if the Cowboys signed them and it did not work out, they get out of the deal at season’s end. The Cowboys could also look to acquire a receiver via trade, and target someone like Patriots’ wideout Nelson Agholor, who likely wouldn’t demand more than a Day 3 pick in return.

The Cowboys escaped danger yesterday, but if they continue to employ this current strategy and not add to their receiver depth, at some point it’s going to catch up to them.

It’s a simple solution to address the problem and at least attempt to give themselves a chance if they are to suffer more injuries at the wideout spot, but it will take them giving up their stubborn approach to give themselves a chance.