When the Dallas Cowboys completed their blockbuster trade for Amari Cooper, sending the Oakland Raiders their 2019 first-round pick in the process, it turned many heads around the league. This was the same Cowboys team who, just before the 2018 NFL Draft released their franchise’s All-Time leader in touchdown receptions, Dez Bryant, believing him to be too prone to costly drops and simply counting too much against the cap at $16.5 million for 2018. The given narrative was that Dallas didn’t need a number one receiver. In fact, they may even be on the cutting edge of a new league-wide trend in devaluing the receiver position with regard to big spending! And then the season began.

Through seven weeks, the Cowboys aerial attack produced just three games of at least 200 yards, with just one receiver going for at least 100 yards (101 to Cole Beasley vs the Jags) in that span. The problems go beyond that, however. Beasley currently leads the Cowboys with just 350 receiving yards on the season. Behind him are the likes of Geoff Swaim (205 yards), Michael Gallup (190 yards), Ezekiel Elliott (175 yards), and Allen Hurns (158 yards). With that lack of productivity through the air, Dallas has become largely one-dimensional, allowing opponents to stack the box and stifle star back, Ezekiel Elliott. As a result of this, Elliott has seen just one game of 100 yards or more on the road this year. How do you fix this? By bringing in a true number one receiver.

Following another disappointing road loss, this time to division rival Washington, the Cowboys front office decided to take drastic action and swung the deal for a big, play-making wide receiver in Cooper. The acquisition itself is great for Dallas as Cooper immediately walks in and becomes the new number one receiver, and by far its greatest “big play” threat. The problem is that Dallas willingly gave up its 2019 first-round draft pick to get him, and that he has a history of dropping passes (14% drop rate between 2015-2017).

The cost is undoubtedly high, invoking memories of disastrous deals like Joey Galloway and Roy Williams, but while many are focused on that aspect of the deal, the bigger story should be what it says about his new quarterback, Dak Prescott. The Dak-to-Dez connection never really formed during the duo’s two seasons together. And while Dallas initially made every effort to explain away this lack of chemistry, it became painfully obvious over time the pairing simply wasn’t a fit. As such, with Bryant’s best years presumably behind him (Dallas’ viewpoint), Dak was the deemed Dallas’ future over Bryant.

In Bryant’s absence, Dak has not been better off, nor by extension have the Dallas Cowboys. Was Dez part of the problem? In some ways, absolutely. In others, as we’ve learned, not so much. What can’t be disputed is that Dez covered up a lot of Prescott’s blemishes at times, and to assume Prescott would be better off without Dez or a comparable receiver was ultimately foolish.

So why do I bring this up? Because the Amari Cooper trade now provides Prescott with another highly-talented star receiver and one who, at just 24 years old, is just entering his prime. Not to mention the fact that Cooper has be selected to two Pro Bowls already. Oh yeah, and there’s the fact that Dallas willingly surrendered a first-round draft pick to get him.

Since 2010, Dallas has largely been stellar in the first round, selecting talents like Dez Bryant, Tyron Smith, Travis Frederick, Zack Martin, Byron Jones, Ezekiel Elliott, and the promising Leighton Vander Esch. The only significant miss during that time is Morris Claiborne. That’s a pretty solid record, to say the least.

If Dak can’t make it work with Amari, just like he couldn’t make it work with Dez, and just like he couldn’t make it work without Dez, the problem isn’t the receiver. It’s Dak. 

So the pressure is on Prescott now to find and develop a connection with Cooper, because Dallas has afforded him his second “star” receiver in less than three years and invested a critically important draft pick to do so. Simply put, if Dak can’t make it work with Amari, and Cooper is gone from Dallas after next year, this will have been a monumental failure of a trade.

Had Dallas not made the deal for Cooper and instead selected a receiver in the first round of next year’s draft, they would control that player for the next four-to-five years at least. As such, if Cooper’s Cowboy career spans only about 25 games while largely being ineffective with Dak as his quarterback -not to mention him getting paid north of $14 million in the process- this trade can be viewed as nothing but a failure. But even then that doesn’t mean it would be Amari’s fault. If Dak can’t make it work with Amari, just like he couldn’t make it work with Dez, and just like he couldn’t make it work without Dez, the problem isn’t the receiver. It’s Dak.

While all indications suggest Prescott is likely is headed for an extension in Dallas, this latest experiment must first be allowed to play out. But can Jerry help himself?

Sources close to Jerry Jones have stated that the only “untouchables” this year, no matter what happens, are Prescott and Kris Richard. This is because Jerry has seen Dak succeed before and values the leadership qualities he brings to the locker room. Richard, on the other hand, is someone Jerry has become “obsessed” with, and who he views potentially as the team’s next head coach. The latter is a subject for another time.

The problem with potentially extending Dak is that we’re getting to the point where the “bad tape” is beginning to outweigh the “good tape.” If Amari Cooper can’t turn Dak back into the play-maker who won Offensive Rookie of the Year and helped lead Dallas to a 13-3 record, just like Dez couldn’t keep Dak at that level, it may very well be time to reconsider where the blame should lie. The question is whether or not Dallas is willing to do that.