Cowboys Country

Eagles Trade Jalen Reagor; WR More Valuable Than Dallas Cowboys Ex Amari Cooper?

With each passing trade in the NFL that involves a wide receiver, it seems more and more as though the Cowboys got fleeced by the Cleveland Browns in the Amari Cooper deal.

Timm Hamm

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FRISCO - This week, the Philadelphia Eagles ended their failed Jalen Reagor experiment, sending the former first-round draft pick to the Minnesota Vikings in exchange for a pair of Day 3 draft picks.

The wideout from Waxahachie and TCU was the No. 21 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft but never caught on in Philadelphia. In exchange for Reagor, the Eagles will reportedly receive a 2023 seventh-round pick and a conditional fourth-round pick that could become a fifth-rounder.

When Dallas Cowboys fans heard details of the deal, most were understandably upset. A typical reaction from Cowboys fans?

Obviously, Philadelphia received more in compensation for Reagor than Dallas did for Amari Cooper; the Cowboys only got a fifth-round pick for Cooper in a trade with the Browns earlier this year.

Amari Cooper is an established player who has made three two Pro Bowls and racked up nearly 4,000 yards with the Cowboys in just over three seasons with the organization. So on the surface, there seems to be quite an inequity here. Same with an assortment of other recent trades, where wideouts who've accomplished very little are getting swapped for late-round picks. (See our scoop on the Cowboys' talks with the Jets for Denzel Mims for examples.)

The criticism is fair in the sense that Dallas certainly did not "win the trade'' in saying goodbye to Cooper. But the criticism does leave out a lot of the subtle wrinkles involved in such transactions.

For instance: It should be noted that Cooper had a $20 million salary the team desperately wanted out of. And CowboysSI.com was the first - and in general still the only - media outlet that has gotten to the bottom of Dallas' unhappiness with Cooper. 

The good news for the Dallas faithful is the impending return of wideout Michael Gallup who appears he may be ready for football action sooner than expected. Maybe that will salve the wounds of an Amari Cooper trade that was in essence "addition by subtraction'' - even amid the argument that a more savvy negotiation would've netted Dallas something more in trade.

You can follow Timm Hamm on Twitter at @IndyCarTim

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Timm Hamm
TIMM HAMM

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