The Dallas Cowboys get to wake up this Sunday morning and have a clear schedule.
Instead of preparing for the NFC Championship game, the players and coaches get to work out, have a big breakfast, or sleep in if they feel like it.
They can thank Matt LaFleur, Jordan Love, and the rest of the Green Bay Packers for this early freedom.
Green Bay marched into Dallas on Wildcard weekend and throttled the Cowboys by the score of 48-32.
Earlier this week I started my series of grading the Cowboys’ key contributors by position.
We have gone through quarterback, running back, and tight end, so today let’s move on to the wide receivers.
Premium stats provided by Pro Football Focus.
Wide Receiver
The Cowboys fielded five wide receivers who played in at least 10 games and were contributors to the offense in 2023.
CeeDee Lamb
PFF Overall (NFL Rank): 90.9 (6th)
PFF Receiving (NFL Rank): 91.2 (T-4th)
What can we say about CeeDee Lamb after a season with 135 receptions for 1,749 yards and 12 touchdowns?
We can say he was spectacular because he was.
Lamb broke Cowboys’ franchise records for receptions and yards that had been held by the great Michael Irvin since 1995.
PFF essentially ranks him in the top five for overall and receiving grades, but he was also top-five in many other metrics.
Lamb led the NFL in receptions and targets, routes ran, and receptions resulting in first downs (87).
He was top-five in YAC (yards after catch, 709), missed tackles forced (20), and 7th in YAC per route run (2.69).
Grade: A+
Lamb made 1st-team All-Pro for the first time in his career and silenced all doubters with his performance in 2023.
He was the heartbeat of the Cowboys’ offense, and it would have looked completely different without him.
Brandin Cooks
PFF Overall (NFL Rank): 68.8 (57th)
PFF Receiving (NFL Rank): 69.9 (55th)
After Lamb, the wide receiver grades for the Cowboys fall off of a cliff.
Brandin Cooks’ rankings are shown above, and they are the next highest on the team.
PFF’s grades seem a bit harsh, but that’s just the harsh reality of the Cowboys not having another player at receiver who was able to contribute consistently.
When Cooks was good, the offense was so much better, but on those games where he failed to show up, the offense struggled.
Cooks finished the year with 54 catches for 657 yards and eight touchdown receptions.
Grade: C
The veteran wide receiver was dubbed “Mr. 1K” by fans when Dallas sent a 5th-round pick to Houston for his services.
We can’t completely blame his failure to reach 1,000 yards for the seventh time in his career.
The offense didn’t get going until after the San Francisco loss, a game in which Cooks caught just one pass for seven yards.
That seemed to be the theme for Cooks, as he eclipsed the 60-yard mark just twice, and had seven games with two receptions or less.
Michael Gallup
PFF Overall (NFL Rank): 63.4 (82nd)
PFF Receiving (NFL Rank): 64.5 (80th)
Michael Gallup had perhaps the most disappointing season of all the wide receivers on the Cowboys’ roster.
Since signing a 5yr/$67.5 million deal two years ago, Gallup has made the Cowboys look foolish for giving him that contract after an ACL injury.
Gallup was invisible most of the season, and eventually lost the bulk of his snaps to rookie 7th-round pick Jalen Brooks.
He ended up with a statistical output reminiscent of his rookie season when he was the fourth option on the offense.
Grade: F
The Cowboys will have a decision to make this offseason.
They can move on from Gallup and his contract with minimal dead cap space if they designate him a post-June cut.
My colleague Shane Taylor details it all in his most recent article.
The Cowboys may even have some trade suitors as Gallup saved his best performance (six receptions for 102 yards) for the Wildcard playoff game.
KaVontae Turpin
PFF Overall (NFL Rank): 67.7 (66th)
PFF Receiving (NFL Rank): 69.8 (56th)
KaVontae Turpin was brought in before the 2022 season from the USFL primarily as a kick and punt returner.
Turpin has become so much more than that for the Cowboys, as Mike McCarthy has shown us flashes of what he can do in the offense.
Unfortunately, there hasn’t been enough of Turpin getting offensive touches to make a larger impact on the offense.
Grade: B
Turpin only touched the football on offense 23 times throughout the entire season, but he did make an impact when involved.
His 12 receptions for 127 yards don’t jump off the page, but nine of those 12 were for first down and he hauled in three touchdowns.
He also rushed the ball 11 times for 110 yards and a touchdown, averaging 10 yards per tote.
I hope to see Turpin return for 2024 and see him get utilized more in the offense.
Jalen Tolbert
PFF Overall (NFL Rank): 56.5 (119th)
PFF Receiving (NFL Rank): 58.0 (118th)
Jalen Tolbert is near Michael Gallup when it comes to the level of disappointment in their play this season.
Tolbert gets a slight break because he did show marked improvement from last season, so he is on an upward trajectory.
In limited opportunities, Tolbert caught 22 receptions for 268 yards and even hauled in two touchdowns.
However, he only surpassed two receptions in a single game once and failed to hit 50 yards in all but two games.
Grade: D
With the decline of Michael Gallup, I expected Tolbert to show us more of his “NFL-ready” status on the field.
Instead, we got minimal impact from a 3rd-round wide receiver with big expectations heading into year two.
Dallas’ best hope moving forward is that Tolbert continues to improve in his third season.