Dallas Cowboys Final Roster Projection: No Preseason – Fallout (August)
By Reid Hanson
Dallas Cowboys Final Roster Projections: Receiver
Dallas Cowboys Receiver (5)
Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup, CeeDee Lamb, Devin Smith, Cedrick Wilson
We know Coop, Gallup, and Lamb are locks, but after that things get hairy. Devin Smith gets the first nod given his draft status, experience, and ability to stretch the field. Smith is a one-trick pony but speed is a pretty valuable “trick”.
Cedrick Wilson gets the next spot. A favorite of the last coaching staff, Wilson will have to prove himself all over again with the new regime. But his versatility, intelligence, and ability should endear him to McCarthy as well and Wilson’s ability to play inside and outside seals the deal. Keep in mind, McCarthy has a west coast style offense that values attention to detail and timing. That bodes well for Wilson.
Given questions on defense and John Fassel’s preference to use defensive players on special teams coverage units, the Dallas Cowboys probably won’t go above five WRs on the 53-man roster. With that said, the expanded game day rosters (55 players) will allow Dallas to promote fringe receivers for games and use them in case of emergency.
It’s likely one of those two spots will be a WR each week but since it’s a revolving door roster spot, we’ll just gloss over it for the time being. The biggest challenger to make the roster beyond Smith and Wilson is Jon’Vea Johnson. The second year player was brilliant last season and showed he had elite separation skills, speed, and position flex. Dropping easy balls doomed him but if he puts that behind him, he could easily claim a roster spot given his skill set.