Jerry Jones admits Dallas Cowboys failures at WR but doesn’t regret Amari Cooper decision

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has no problem admitting the obvious.

The plans the Cowboys had at receiver following their decision to trade Amari Cooper last March didn’t work out.

Michael Gallup and rookie third-round pick Jalen Tolbert didn’t live up to expectations and and were huge disappointments, Jones said on Wednesday when he met with select media at Senior Bowl.

But he said, he doesn’t regret the decision to move on from Cooper and the player’s $20 million annual salary.

Jones said the Cowboys used the savings on Cooper for other players on the roster, allowing them to match the same 12-5 record they had in 2021 with a less talented roster at receiver.

“You could say that we probably had too much reliance on what Tolbert could do because we were high on him coming out,” Jones said. “We thought he could immediately be a factor. We thought possibly we could have better results relative to Gallup as far as his rehab and where he is. I can say that.

“The other parts of it, the elephant in the room that you’re talking about was when I look at the salary that was involved there, over $20 million a year. I look at what we got with that salary to help this team that we wouldn’t have been able to have on this team, had we kept it. I like what we did.”

The Cowboys are hoping Tolbert takes a huge step in year two and they believe Gallup will be better one year removed from ACL surgery that caused him to miss the first three games in 2022.

The Cowboys also plan to address the position in the draft and free agency. The urgency for impact production at receiver beyond No. 1 option CeeDee Lamb is paramount.

So much so that Jerry Jones and vice president Stephen Jones said the team plans to renew their pursuit of three-time Pro Bowler Odell Beckham Jr in free agency.

The Cowboys brought in Beckham for a visit in December but he was still rehabbing a torn ACL, suffered last February in the Super Bowl with the Los Angeles Rams.

Beckham didn’t feel he would be ready to play until the playoffs but the Cowboys were looking for immediate help and signed T.Y. Hilton to bolster the receiver corps.

Beckham is already good to go for next season and Cowboys will be among his suitors again.

“Again, I’ve gotten to know him well,” said Jerry Jones, who led the recruitment of Beckham during the season. “We’ll be talking.”

Said Stephen Jones on Beckham: “Oh, absolutely. That’s the way we left it with him. Get ready to play, and then let’s revisit. We obviously had an interest for a reason.”

The reasons were that Tolbert played in just eight games and caught just two passes fro 12 yards.

Even more frustrating was Gallup, who signed a 5-year, $57.5 million deal last March when the Cowboys moved on from Cooper.

CeeDee Lamb more than lived to the expectations of replacing Cooper as the No. 1 option but Gallup didn’t hold up his end of the bargain as Lamb’s No. 2.

Lamb caught 107 passes for 1,359 yards and 9 touchdowns to lead the Cowboys. Gallup finished fourth in catches. Tight end Dalton Schultz (57) and receiver Noah Brown (43) were second and third.

“We need Tolbert to come on as a young player and we need to keep looking for help at receiver,” Jerry Jones said. “Lamb did everything and more than we hoped he would do. We need some guys, when they’re really covering him, we need some guys that have a better chance to get open and we probably can do some things in the passing game to help Gallup to get more involved.”

Still there are no regrets about Cooper, who caught 78 passes for 1,160 and nine touchdowns for the Browns.

“I can’t talk of it in isolation about what we did at receiver,” Jerry Jones said. “Receiver freed 20 million dollars that we used really effectively to have the team we had.”