Dissecting the Cowboys’ loaded WR trio

Yahoo Fantasy’s Matt Harmon and Dalton Del Don discuss the loaded receiving corps in Dallas between Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup and CeeDee Lamb — plus who will benefit the most this upcoming season. Subscribe to the Yahoo Fantasy Football Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Video Transcript

DALTON DEL DON: Amari Cooper, Dallas. He's so good in the slot, but CeeDee Lamb might be there. It's a great problem to have, man. The more I think about it, the more it was such an easy decision for Dallas. Who cares if they have two good wide receivers? I'm a Gallup guy even.

MATT HARMON: Me too.

DALTON DEL DON: So what are your thoughts on the Cowboys situation, other than the potential? This team led the NFL in yards per play last year and then added CeeDee Lamb.

MATT HARMON: I know.

DALTON DEL DON: Could be sick.

MATT HARMON: It's insane. And I love CeeDee Lamb as a player too. I mean, it's not a hot take. I compared him to Hopkins coming out. I know a few other people did as well.

I think he's pretty underrated as a separator and as a route runner and also has that great YAC ability and can put some absolute highlight reel catches up. Cooper I think is often regarded as one of the best route runners in the NFL, but I think he's kind of overrated in that sense.

DALTON DEL DON: Home-road splits are so bizarre. Probably mean nothing, but check out his home-road splits. The last three years, he's averaging like 38 yards on the road. It's super weird. Anyway, continue.

MATT HARMON: I mean, anybody that's had him in fantasy knows that he's an inconsistent producer, and I think that that reputation follows him onto his film as well. He was coming into the NFL super refined coming out of Alabama as a technician and as a route runner, but I don't think he's gotten better. And in fact his success rate versus man coverage has fallen every season of his career.

Like you mentioned, Dallas does offset that because they, unlike the early Oakland coaching staffs that he played with-- and I'll give credit to Jon Gruden because he started to do this with Amari Cooper before he traded him midway through his first season there. Those old Oakland coaching staffs would just line Cooper up at X receiver.

And like I've mentioned throughout the podcast, when you line up in that position, you're gonna face a lot of number one corners, you're gonna face a lot of tight coverage, and a lot of press and a lot of man. And Cooper's just not very good in that role. So I think Dallas has done a good job to offset that by moving him around before the snap by getting him into favorable matchups.

Gallup, on the other hand, is that guy in this offense who plays the X receiver position. And I think he's one of the most underrated players in the NFL. Because I get it, they just added this first round rookie receiver. But in a year where we're not gonna get a ton of offseason practice time-- we keep saying that-- I think Gallup could end up being a huge value.

Because not only does he play, in my opinion, the most difficult position in this Dallas offense, he was awesome in it last year. I mean, 1,100 yards in 14 games. The stats prove it, and I think the film proves it too. He's a guy who had a great success rate versus man coverage score and was really good on deep routes and in the contested catch game. So I'm really high on this receiver corps and this entire offense.

DALTON DEL DON: Yeah, and over the last two years, Dak has just missed him on like a handful of deep--

MATT HARMON: Yes.

DALTON DEL DON: --touchdowns as well too. Yeah, that's gonna be a fun team to watch. Not as a Niners fan. They're terrifying. CeeDee Lamb could be a monster. So that team's gonna put up a lot of points.