Clearly salty Cole Beasley tired of being labeled as salty about Cowboys
After seven seasons with the Dallas Cowboys, Cole Beasley has a new home for the first time in his NFL career.
The 30-year-old slot receiver signed a four-year, $29 million deal with the Buffalo Bills in the offseason and will now catch passes from Josh Allen instead of Dak Prescott.
It sounds like he couldn’t be happier about it. The Athletic’s Tim Graham recently profiled Beasley, focusing on his life as a slot receiver in the NFL.
While Beasley carries a chip on his shoulder as an undersized player who’s made it in the NFL — he’s listed at 5-8 and 174 pounds — he appears to carry an even bigger chip for his former team.
‘It’s like I’m salty I’m not there’
Beasley said in the interview that he didn’t want to talk about the Cowboys, having grown weary of being painted as “salty” over his split with the team.
“I don’t even want to bring up Dallas anymore, really,” Beasley told Graham. “Every time I bring them up, it’s like I’m salty I’m not there.”
Beasley then went on to make many salty statements about the Cowboys, criticizing their coaching, offensive scheme, culture and apparent lack of appreciation for slot receivers.
He told Graham that he almost quit football when he arrived in Dallas as an undrafted rookie in 2012. It wasn’t because he didn’t think he could make it. He blamed the Cowboys for not recognizing how good he was.
Didn’t matter that ‘I was better’ than other WRs
“I was seeing that even though I was better, it didn’t matter almost,” Beasley said of his rookie experience. “I got frustrated, more frustrated than I should’ve. It was a wake-up call for me what the NFL was. It wasn’t real, not what I thought it was.
“You automatically assume the best players in the NFL always play. Then you get there, and you realize it’s not always the case. I wondered what I was working for. The coaches keep telling me I’m undrafted, I’m small, take no days off, I have to earn it every day. And I felt like I was, but maybe I’m still not going to get it because this other guy is making $8 million, and they have to justify signing him.”
Beasley obviously resisted the urge to leave the game, going on to tally 319 catches for 3,271 yards and 23 touchdowns over his seven seasons in Dallas.
Beasley: Cowboys didn’t value slot receivers
He maintained that even though he found his niche, he felt undervalued playing for coaches who “think a lot of the slot-receiver stuff is instinct and feel” and gave more attention to wideouts because they “didn’t value the slot position like they do here.”
“I felt like it was easy for me to be taken away,” Beasley said of playing in Dallas. “Really, in that offense, all you had to do was bracket me because I went beyond five yards rarely. And when I did, it was from the same formation; I was in the same spot all the time.”
Not content with taking out his former coaches with ex-passing game and offensive coordinator Scott Linehan apparently in his sights, Beasley took a jab at Cowboys culture.
“I’m just glad to be here where it’s 100 percent about ball and not a show or a brand,” Beasley said of Buffalo. “It’s purer here. I’m proud to be part of something like that.”
Will Beasley be happy in Buffalo?
While Beasley got his payday and away from a situation that had him frustrated, joining a franchise with a losing culture and a second-year quarterback who threw more interceptions (12) than touchdowns (10) while completing 52.8 percent of his passes as a rookie doesn’t sound like the recipe for football joy.
Beasley had his gripes in Dallas. It seems likely he’ll find some in Buffalo too.
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