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The Cowboys just made their second trade of the beginning phases of the 2023 offseason.
Sources: The #Texans are trading WR Brandin Cooks to the #Cowboys for a 5th this year and 6th next year. A big-play threat for Dallas.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 19, 2023
Brandin Cooks, now one of the most traded players in NFL history, gives the Cowboys some serious speed opposite of CeeDee Lamb. Through his nine-year career he has played five full seasons, and in each of those seasons he accumulated 1,000 yards or more.
Although he missed some games last year, he still managed to catch 4.4 balls a game while averaging 53.8 yards per. All while being on an offense that ranked 31st in scoring offense and 31st in total yards.
As a bonus, the Cowboys got Houston to pay part of his contract.
To complete the Brandin Cooks trade, Texans agreed to pay $6M of his $18M salary in 2023, a person familiar with situation said. So Cowboys acquire Cooks for two Day 3 picks and save one third of his salary. @AaronWilson_NFL first reported the financial element to deal.
— Michael Gehlken (@GehlkenNFL) March 19, 2023
Earlier this week, a report surfaced that if the Cowboys were to trade for a wide receiver, it was going to be adjacent to the Stephon Gilmore deal.
Here's my article from Friday.
— Bobby Belt (@BobbyBeltTX) March 19, 2023
If the Cowboys were going to make a trade for a receiver, it had to be a steal. They were looking for the receiver version of the Stephon Gilmore trade. They found it in Brandin Cooks.https://t.co/zHICf1CeBi
They found it. Cooks not only adds a key component to this team, but it bolsters the class of returnees and newcomers for the Cowboys. Last year at the beginning of free agency, we were parched from any deals and the very few that did happen were underwhelming. This time around, the Cowboys are the most active team in the trade market and as Dak Prescott said earlier this week, “the urgency is now.”
With the need of wide receiver presumably checked off the shopping list, the Cowboys now have some draft flexibility.
We are still early into FA, but not a ton of huge holes for Dallas right now.
— Marcus Mosher (@Marcus_Mosher) March 19, 2023
iDL, TE (?), and RB are their three biggest needs left.
They now can add depth to a position like offensive line, add another weapon to what should be an already improved offense, or some defensive line depth. The Cowboys have often walked into the draft with too many holes after sitting out free agency and trades. This year, there is some flexibility in positional needs, which gives the opportunity to pick the best player available in each and every round.
All things considered, the Cowboys approach to the offseason seems different than recent years. A welcomed change, at that. This is the best start to any Cowboys offseason in a long, long time. The best part is, we’re only a week in.
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