Dallas Cowboys Prediction: Move on From Brandin Cooks & Michael Gallup, Draft WR Troy Franklin?

Dallas Cowboys Prediction: Move on From Brandin Cooks & Michael Gallup, Draft WR Troy Franklin?

FRISCO - It's a bit early to us to spend a great deal of time focusing on the 2024 NFL Draft; being immersed in a 2023 Dallas Cowboys season that continues to provide such playoff promise tends to do that to us.

But draft experts still need to do their thing, as evidenced by a piece at The 33rd Team on the 2024 NFL Mock Draft that the site predicts will see the Cowboys select University of Oregon wide receiver Troy Franklin with the 26th overall pick.

No problem there, we say, though as always, we urge teams to "draft players, not positions'' - so as a general policy, Dallas shouldn't pick a receiver because it "needs one.''

Having said that, the site predicts that there will indeed be a "need'' because the CeeDee Lamb-led wideout room will be stripped bare of its present Nos. 2 and 3 receivers.

The 33rd Team says that Brandin Cooks and Michael Gallup are about out the door ... which is news to us.

Via the site: “Brandin Cooks will hit free agency, and Michael Gallup likely will be a cap casualty, so adding to the wide receiver room to take pressure off of CeeDee Lamb is at the top of the Dallas Cowboys‘ needs heading into the offseason.''

With all due respect, there are three glaring problems here ...

1) We have literally zero idea what Dallas' "needs'' will be next April. (And again, we care little about "drafting for need.'')

2) We have no information that Gallup - though there is some escapability from his bloated contract next spring - "will likely be a cap casualty.'' In fact, if he's cut pre-June 1, Dallas eats almost $13 million, though if it's post-June 1, there are savings to be had.

3) Brandin Cooks will not hit free agency. Oops. He's got one more year left on his deal.

There is some savings to be had post-June 1 in cutting Cooks, as there is with Gallup. But he's under contract.

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The timing of everything in the spring could telegraph some plans. If, for instance, in April, Dallas really does draft somebody like Franklin - labeled by The 33rd Team as "the best big-play star receiver in college football'' - moving on from incumbents in June becomes a theoretically consideration.

But the conclusion of a thesis can't be correct if the thesis is wrong. And the statements that Brandin Cooks is "going to hit free agency and that Michael Gallup is "likely to be cut'' are simply, at this time, not factual.