Snoopy said:
I thought this was a move by Jerry Jones? Anyways, we have to give Dak some kind of receiver besides Beasly. Dak's level of difficulty is extremely high compared to most quarterbacks. Dallas Cowboys have lost two games (Houston and Washington) by 3 points and they were both winnable games. We just need one decent receiver that can get open constantly and we need a better left guard. |
It's difficult to say who's responsible for what exactly unless someone inside the organization discloses, but it's very rare for a move like this to be made without heavy involvement on the part of the head coach. At the very least, coaches have to be consulted about the player and whether they think they'll fit in with the current scheme/roster. The only situation in recent memory where there was a major disconnect to the point of not having the coach involved with personnel moves like this was Indianapolis when Ryan Grigson was GM and Chuck Pagano was head coach, and that (unsurprisingly) ended in disaster. Simply put, Garrett was almost certainly involved, and given that he took part in the conversations I'd imagine that he was also probably the one that initially pushed for it to happen.
In regards to the team, I agree that Dallas is in a tough spot, but they overpaid significantly for Cooper, who's been really struggling over the past season and a half. They probably could've gotten Cooper for, at most, a second round pick + a later round pick, and likely just the second. And even if they somehow couldn't, there are plenty of teams who would likely be willing to trade a receiver of Cooper's ability for less than a first. Juju Smith-Schuster, Robby Anderson, Kenny Stills, Jamison Crowder, Nelson Agholor, Keelan Cole, Sterling Shepherd: all young receivers (24 or under) with more yards than Cooper last year that you could almost certainly pry away from teams for a second round pick or less.
And the problem is that, even if Cooper puts them over the top in the division, they're going nowhere in the playoffs. They certainly don't have the ability to challenge the top tier teams in the NFC like the Rams or Saints. You're trading a first round pick for, at best, the right to get stomped in the playoffs. You can argue that trading Cooper for a first doesn't change much since they would've likely picked a WR anyway, but Cooper's gonna be 25 by the time next year starts and he's already got a significant amount of mileage on him (to say nothing of injury concerns). Personally, I think the much smarter option would've been to just accept this year as a lost cause, go for a high draft pick, find a great WR or LT in the first and the other in the second. Or maybe trade a high first rounder for two mid/late firsts to get a really good LT/WR if you don't think either is worth drafting early first. As an added bonus, you have an excuse to fire Jason Garrett too, and you can get the new guys a coach that isn't more conservative than rural Alabama.
