Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones needed to address some big moves his team made in the offseason. The biggest was the trade of wide receiver Amari cooper to Cleveland Browns.
Jones spoke to the media Monday to explain why the team decided to trade Cooper instead of releasing cap space to pay Cooper his $20 million salary. Jones replied bluntly that the team believed the money could be better spent elsewhere.
Jones stated, “We made the decision that this allocation should have been better spent.”
Some of the money was used by the Cowboys to acquire wide receivers Noah Brown and Michael Gallup, while James Washington was also added. They extended Demarcus Lawrence’s pass rusher contract and franchise tagged tight end Dalton Schultz.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on not returning WR Amari Cooper, who was due a $20M salary with $22M cap hit unless team restructured him: “We made a decision that that allocation should be better spent.”
— Michael Gehlken (@GehlkenNFL) March 28, 2022
The only thing that will frustrate Cowboys fans the most is the small compensation they received in return for Amari Cooper.The Browns only gave the Cowboys a fifth-round pick and swap a sixth in order to get Amari cooper.
Wide receivers such as Tyreek Hill and Davante Adams netted their original teams at most one first-round pick.
Given the rapid rise of the market, Jerry Jones and the Cowboys might have been a bit too quick to unload Hill.
It doesn’t really matter if Cooper’s absence improves the offense. However, if the offense doesn’t improve in Cooper’s absence, there will be many angry Cowboys fans over the next few months.