What excites Jerry Jones, Jason Garrett about the Randall Cobb upgrade ‘train’ at WR
As coach Jason Garrett likes to say and will tell you when you ask him, the Cowboys loved slot receiver Cole Beasley.
They loved that he was sure-handed, quarterback friendly, hard to guard on option routes and clutch on third down.
But after Beasley joined the Buffalo Bills as a free agent two weeks ago, they couldn’t have picked a better replacement than Randall Cobb, the former Packers star who signed a one-year deal with the team last week.
The Cowboys were initially going to try to make it work in the slot with Allen Hurns, who is coming off surgery for a broken ankle and won’t be ready until training camp, but they are happy they didn’t miss the Cobb train when it came by, according to owner Jerry Jones.
“We actually had Hurns as a way to go here. But the opportunity to get him [Cobb] was outstanding,” Jones said this week at the NFL owners meeting. “That was one that you just — it had to fall your way. The fact that we were able to do that, when you look at the result of Bease going on to Buffalo and him coming here, then the result looked more clever than it was to plan on it.
“But if you haven’t thought about the possibility and the results and the consequences, and you’re sitting there just thinking about it as the caboose on the train is whizzing by, you have missed the train. We had really thought about it, so when that opportunity with Cobb came, we were able to get all over it. That’s the way you’re supposed to do it.”
There is no question the speedy Cobb is more explosive than Beasley and brings that big play element to the Cowboys offense. It should result in more touchdowns for a team that struggled to score in 2018, especially in the red zone.
Cobb will serve as the third receiver behind starters Amari Cooper and Michael Gallup, but he has the ability to do it all.
Garrett gushed about his versatility in being able to take handoffs at running back, reverses, bubble screens and play outside as well as inside, which should mesh with some of the new things the Cowboys plan to do on offense under coordinator Kellen Moore.
“He’s so capable of doing so many different things,” Garrett said. “We got an up close and personal view of him every time we played Green Bay. You go into these games and you look at a guy like this like, ‘God damn, look at him again. They’re handing it to him, they’re throwing it to him, he’s in the slot, he’s outside. He makes these plays at critical moments.’ We’ve been trying to guard him for a long time. To have him be able to come in and be as versatile as we think he can be, I think he’s going to be a big lift for our offense.”
The only question with Cobb, 28, is his health.
Cobb missed seven games in 2018 with hamstring and concussion issues. He missed one game in 2017 and three games in 2016.
The Packers let him go in free agency after just 38 catches for 383 yards in 2018.
But from 2012-2017, he caught at last 60 passes five times, including a high of 91 catches for 1,287 yards and 12 touchdowns in 2014 when he made the Pro Bowl.
Cobb is no longer that player but he remains explosive and versatile. He is excellent on bubble screens and has 59 rushes for 352 yards during his career.
“Well, you try to address that head on,” Garrett said if the health concerns. “You say ‘OK, what happened here? Really productive this year, not quite as productive here. What’s going on with that hamstring injury? Look at him when he was healthy, he played really well. What did the doctors say? What did the trainers say? What did the medical people, who are on the forefront of it, what are their opinions on all of this?’ And then you just try to put it all together and make the best decision you can for the team. But if you look at him early on in the season last year, when he was healthy, he was a really impactful player. And that’s the player we tried to defend for a lot of years.”
This story was originally published March 28, 2019 at 9:22 AM.
