Mike McCarthy is entering his fourth season as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, but his first since taking charge of offensive play. Since coming to Dallas, McCarthy has led the Cowboys to consecutive 12-win seasons, but they have fallen short of a touchdown. NFC Championship game both years.
After getting a little more aggressive this season in an effort to get over the hump, the Cowboys are hoping for a big 2023 season. In anticipation of that, let’s take an in-depth look at each position on the list. Today, it’s time to take a look at the wide range of receivers.
Brandin Cooks’ influence has already been felt
The 2022 season cemented CeeDee Lamb’s status as a major receiver in the NFL — he had 1,359 yards and nine touchdowns and ranked 10th in the league in yards per touchdown — but it also cemented the fact that Lamb isn’t enough on his own. This is why the addition of veteran pacer Brandin Cooks was so crucial.
Chefs is entering the 10th year of his career and coming off a season in which he put up for 699 yards despite missing four games; It is the third time in his career that he has fallen short of 1,000 yards.
However, the most important aspect of Cooks is his ability to widen the field. Last year, he played horribly Texas It was the first time in his career that Cooks averaged less than 11 yards on average depth of goal. He has also recorded over 10 receptions on passes for 20+ yards in six of his nine seasons played to date.
His deep ball skills were already evident in his very little exposure with Dak Prescott.
Cowboys QB Dak Prescott on WR Brandin Cooks’ speed: “It’s beautiful. Yeah, real speed. … For him to be able to do that every game every run and every road start – cornerbacks and defense, they don’t know what they’re going to get. All Something looks the same. I’m grateful it’s here.”
– Michael Gilken (GehlkenNFL) June 7, 2023
That’s not all, because Chefs’ influence is felt in the locker room as well as on the field.
Cowboys OC Brian Schottenheimer on WR Brandin Cooks: “Jalen Tolbert had a great camp. If you talk to Jalen, what he’ll tell you is he spent a lot of time with Brandin. This is a guy who’s been there, done that, and wants to encourage and invest in.. .
– John Machota (@jonmachota) June 8, 2023
Which Michael Gallup will we see in 2023?
It wasn’t that long ago that people had serious debates about whether or not Michael Gallup was eligible for the WR1. His 1,950 yards and 11 touchdowns over the 2019 and 2020 seasons were impressive, especially considering all the different quarterbacks who caught passes from 2020.
Then the injuries started hitting. Gallup suffered a calf injury in the first week of the 2021 season that kept him out for seven games. Gallup returned and started playing up to his standards again, but then suffered a torn ACL in Week 17. He was back by Week 4 of the 2022 season, but it was clear that Gallup just wasn’t the same.
The expectation, echoed by OTA’s Mike McCarthy, is that Gallup will return to his usual self with a full year between his injuries now. But the receiver too He underwent arthroscopy on both the knee and the ankle from his other leg shortly after the season ended, casting doubt on how healthy he really was.
If Gallup can regain his form in 2023, it will be a big deal for the Cowboys. Lamb and Cooks are expected to be the top targets on this new offense, but a perfectly healthy Gallup will give Dallas one of the most impressive receiving teams in the NFL.
The WR4 looks like a good fight
The Cowboys know who the top three are widely known, even if there is still uncertainty about how good the cook is and how healthy Gallup is. But the most important spot in the WR4—previously occupied by Cedric Wilson, and last year’s Noah Brown—seems to have stiff competition.
The two biggest names are Simi Fehoko and Jalen Tolbert. Fehoko is the most experienced player, having joined the team in 2021 as a fifth-round pick from Stanford. Standing at 6’4″ and running a 4.43 40-yard dash, Fehoko offers a unique combination of size and speed. After redshirting his freshman year, Fuuko was poised for a bigger role in 2022 — especially after a dominant training camp performance — but was added to injured reserve after just five games.
Tolbert, on the other hand, entered last year with unrealistically high expectations. A third round pick out of South Alabama, the Cowboys were instantly smitten with Tolbert. After showing flashes in training camp, Tolbert suddenly fell out of favor with the coaches and was a healthy first-week scratch. He did not make his NFL debut until Week 3, and was inactive for the next two games after that. Tolbert finished on the inactive list for the final five games of the year, as well as both playoff games, and tallied just two goals in three.
Fehoko and Tolbert are both looking for a fresh start in the new attack, and both have already benefited from Cooks’ leadership. All of them have been singled out by McCarthy, as well as Brian Schottenheimer, as players who made an impact early on. Their fight for the WR4 spot must have been a case of sharpening iron.
Will there be another Dennis Huston this year?
Last year, Dennis Houston appeared out of nowhere as a junior from Western Illinois and made the list, largely due to his instant chemistry with Dak Prescott. But after scoring only two of his six goals over the first two games, Houston fell to the practice squad for the remainder of the year.
Will there be another Houston this year? The answer really depends on how many receivers the Cowboys decide to keep on the roster. Houston is also a likely candidate to repeat his surprising performance and steal a spot on the roster.
Other important players who could accomplish such a feat include seventh-round rookie Jalen Brooks, and not-so-famous rookies like Jalen Moreno Cropper and David Durden, as well as second-year player Dontario Drummond. The competition will certainly be fierce.
Difference in usage from Kellen Moore to Mike McCarthy
The Cowboys have a new offensive coordinator (Schotenheimer) and a new caller (McCarthy), though they insist that only about 30% of the offense change or modify. Reading between the lines, it appears as if most of these changes are coming in the running game, but the passing game is sure to see some adjustments as well.
McCarthy, who hails from a West Coast offense, has traditionally made extensive use of the slash-and-flat approaches for his receivers. Schottenheimer is a protégé of Air Coryell’s school of offense, which uses a lot of crossers, both shallow and deep. All of these trail patterns provide a strong contrast to Kellen Moore’s extensive use of obstacle roads – the Cowboys were the fourth most scored on obstacle roads in the NFL last year.
While Moore has repeatedly called plays that have receivers in a fixed position at the point of the catch, it seems likely that McCarthy and Schottenheimer will require their receivers to make more catching catches this year. This appears to benefit the faster species on this list, especially the likes of Cooks and Fehoko, and could shape the way this parlor ultimately operates in 2023.