The Pro Bowl (weird as it was at times) is done and the Dallas Cowboys’ c

oaching staff is home. While the offensive coordinator job is still technically open Cheap Josh Rosen Jersey , all signs are that Kellen Moore will wind up filling it, with Jon Kitna as the quarterback coach. We still have to wait for that to become official, but now the team should be ready to move onto the the next phase of things: Free agency. And this season, as is normal for the Cowboys, the biggest decisions concern their own free agents. Everyone knows DeMarcus Lawrence is the big target to retain, but that is a case where the only real thing for the team to decide is just how hard they are going to negotiate the handsome price they will pay for him.However, there is one rather complicated situation for the team to handle, and that is what to do about slot receiver Cole Beasley. He has expressed unhappiness over his role in the offense, leading to speculation that he is basically gone in free agency. Despite that, Beasley has often played a vital role for the Cowboys as the go-to slot receiver, especially when they really need to convert on short-to-medium third downs. He is very difficult to cover one-on-one, and now that the team has added Amari Cooper and seen the emergence of Michael Gallup, and Blake Jarwin and Dalton Schultz have improved, Beasley has real value on the field, whether he is the target or making it easier for Dak Prescott to get the ball to someone else. Part of his discontent seems to lie with the way offensive coordinator Scott Linehan didn’t appear to want to incorporate him into the game plan.But Linehan has graduated to ex-offensive coordinator. It remains to be seen how presumptive OC Moore will seek to utilize slot receivers. He may have an encouraging message for Beasley if he wants to stay.There is also the question of just how much Beasley was being left out of the game plan. 2018 was not really a down year for him. It was his second best season behind 2016 in yardage, targets, and receptions. He caught 75% of the balls thrown his way, and averaged just over 10 yards a catch. And while he only had three touchdowns, the one he grabbed to win the final regular season game was a clear exhibit of just how good a weapon he can be.So the Cowboys have to make a decision on whether they really want to let him go in free agency (assuming he would be receptive to a new deal with Dallas). The question in that case is just how much they are willing to pay for him. It is anticipated that he would be expecting a contract worth between $6 and $8 million annually. Are the Cowboys willing to pony up that much? If not, what will they do to replace him?Well, if they aren’t, they have to have a plan for that replacement - and that is far murkier than the OC status. Beasley is a specific talent, able to get open almost at will, with good hands and more speed than many think. If he is not retained Cheap Christian Kirk Jersey , the Cowboys have some uncertain alternatives. They can try to re-sign Tavon Austin, but he has a significant injury history, missing nine regular season games since coming to Dallas last year. His record as a pass receiver is not nearly as good as Beasley’s, with only a 59% catch rate. He is an electrifying return man, which is perhaps reason enough to try and re-sign him, but that does not make him a reliable option in the slot. They also have Cedrick Wilson, who spent his rookie season on IR. Wilson is seen as having a chance to be a very good slot receiver, based on his performance in training camp before his injury, but it is just potential, where Beasley is a proven commodity. Otherwise, they could try a bit of slot-receiver-by-committee, but recent history with that whole “by-committee” thing is not encouraging.That leaves free agency and the draft. And frankly, there is little chance of finding someone who can replace Beasley’s contributions either route. A free agent of anywhere near his abilities is going to cost just about as much, so why not spend the money on someone who already knows the quarterback? And while Moore is expected to make some real changes to the offense, he should keep a lot of the same terminology and some of the concepts to make things as easy on his players as possible.Still, the team may be tempted to try and replace Beasley with a much cheaper draftee. It is seen to be a good draft for wide receivers, with players like Marquise Brown and Andy Isabella possibly being there when the Cowboys select in the second or third round. But if I were involved in the personnel decisions at the Star, I would be advocating strongly that the team make an offer to Beasley, and be willing to work with him to keep his talents on board. The team has nearly $55 million in cap space per Over the Cap and has shown it can find more whenever it needs to. Investing in their own free agents has been a strategy of the Cowboys for some time now, and it is one that should be continued with Beasley. They can afford it. And he is worth it. It took seven games, and more importantly four road losses, for the Dallas Cowboys to address their biggest issue. The much ballyhooed “wide receiver by committee” was, with the exception of the win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, basically DOA. The Cowboys had no offense to speak of in games where the defense was putting the team in a position to win. It became clear that Dallas had no real passing game www.dallascowboysteamonline.com , and opponents just focused on stopping the run and forcing the Cowboys to beat them through the air. We saw to our dismay just how that worked out. Now Amari Cooper has been acquired, at the cost of next year’s first-round draft pick, which is as clear an admission of failure as you can get. Cooper brings hope that the season can still be salvaged, although just how much hope the team should have is clearly questionable given the hole they have dug themselves.But just admitting a problem and addressing it is not enough. Well, it probably should be, but we are talking fans and sports media for the most scrutinized and polarizing team in the NFL. Fixing things during the season is one thing. Somebody has to pay. A guilty party needs to be identified and punishment meted out. That’s just how it’s done in ‘Murica. Indeed, the Cowboys have already made a move to address part of the problem, as offensive line coach Paul Alexander has reportedly been fired. Pass protection and run blocking were both issues for the team. However, that is just part of the story. The anemic passing attack may be helped with some (hopefully) better pass protection and run blocking, but it still has been pretty horrible.So welcome to an investigation of this football crime as we look at the suspects and point fingers of accusation.The receivers themselvesPart of the constant wrangling about what happened to the passing game in Dallas was the question of coaching versus execution. In looking at the latter as a cause, we start with the guys who are supposed to catch the ball. It quickly became apparent that this group just wasn’t getting the job done. Free agent acquisitions Allen Hurns and Deonte Thompson have run the gamut from disappointing to really, really disappointing. Rookie Michael Gallup got off to a slow start (although he is beginning to show signs of emergence). So far, only Cole Beasley has shown much in this group, and just as opposing defenses have been able to bottle up Ezekiel Elliott at times, they also have been able to blanket Beasley in games. Forcing Dak Prescott to go to his other options is usually not to Dallas’ benefit.Tight end is a bit better, as Geoff Swaim has been steady but not spectacular. The rest of that group is still not doing much, and the team has not really figured out what they want to do with Rico Gathers. The running backs are still mostly used as safety valves, despite Elliott having been a very effective target in the win over the Detroit Lions.But while the wide receiver group may be a cause of the problems, it really isn’t their fault. They got hired, and have simply turned out to be a bad fit for what the team needs. Cooper’s acquisition just reinforces that.The quarterbackPrescott has certainly taken a lot of hits this season, both figuratively and literally. He has not looked decisive most of the time and has made a lot of questionable (at best) throws. It is also apparent he is just too nervous about his protection, pulling the ball down and leaving the pocket when he has receivers coming open and often is not as pressured as he seems to think. It is hard to criticize him too much for that latter problem given the number of sacks and hits he has had to take. The Cowboys are tied for eighth in terms of most sacks given up - and several teams with worse numbers there have not had their bye week yet. Still, the Cowboys are tied for 22nd in the league in yards per attempt and 29th in yards per game, so Prescott needs to take at least some of the responsibility here.However Dallas Cowboys T-Shirt , he has been trending up a bit, with passer ratings of 95 or better in three of his last four games. And the firing of Alexander, with Marc Colombo promoted to fill that job for now and Colombo’s old O line coach Hudson Houck also brought back to the fold in an advisory capacity, may also help get the line playing better. It also cannot be denied that he has seen too many passes dropped when he is on target. So while he is part of the overall problem, he seems to be working hard to make things better, with some success. And there is evidence that the decision makers don’t see him as the problem, anyway. The trade for Cooper and the shakeup at O line coach looks a lot like they are trying to help Dak, not blame him.That means we turn our attention to the staff.The JonesesThere is no other team in the league where the ownership has as much responsibility and direct authority over the roster. That means Jerry Jones as GM and Stephen Jones as maybe the real day-do-day GM must be scrutinized here. After all, they are the main parties involved in putting the group of receivers together to start the season. Since it has been shown to be so inadequate, that falls a lot on their shoulders. And then there was the release of Dez Bryant. While it is certainly questionable whether he was really the answer to this bunch playing better, the idea that you could discard your WR1 without really replacing him has been shown to be erroneous, at least with the offensive system that Dallas runs. Still, does that make them the real culprits here, or just accomplices who got led down a bad path? Besides, they are hardly going to fire themselves. The sudden move to part ways with Alexander and bring back Houck to help Colombo also shows that they are truly dedicated to getting things fixed. Given all that, the question now becomes, just who came up with the failed committee approach at WR?The head coachAh, Jason Garrett. The coach that so many betting sites had as the favorite to be the first fired this season (an “honor” that now goes to Cleveland Browns former HC Hue Jackson). His stamp is on this team, reflecting the large input he has on personnel decisions. The buck often stops with the HC in the NFL, but once again, the Cowboys are a unique situation with the ownership also being the collective GM. Despite the myth, decision-making in Dallas has long been a collaborative effort, and there are times that Garrett does get overruled or outvoted on key things. And as has been reported by Bryan Broaddus, DallasCowboys.com staffer and team insider Dallas Cowboys Hats , that was what happened back when Dez was turned loose. Garrett and Jerry Jones both had to be really sold on that idea, and were the last ones to come around on it. In a possibly related note, you may be aware of the heavy criticism Garrett took for being at a World Series game in Los Angeles on his off day. It has also been noted that Houck moved to California when he retired. Coincidence? Maybe not. It might just reflect that Garrett’s position with the team is stronger than some think, that he was partly behind bringing Houck back, and was given the responsibility to seal the deal.So there must have been another voice who drove the things that led to the offensive malaise. And that is the suspect that stands out as the real villain of this crime.The offensive coordinatorScott Linehan’s fingerprints are all over this one. The Dez Bryant decision, and a lot more. His offensive staff was largely redone, including the replacement of O line coach Frank Pollack by Alexander.At the time of the multiple changes in the offensive assistants, it was easy to argue that Linehan was putting the blame for the failures of 2017 on everyone but his own coaching. Now that the problems have continued into this season, that holds water no better than a sieve. The perception, especially in light of the hiring of his adopted son former backup Kellen Moore as the new QB coach, was that the new offensive staff firings and hirings were pretty much hand picked by Linehan. Now that has all come apart, and there are no more fall guys. The verdict for Linehan should be a clear “guilty”, and he should pay the ultimate price in NFL terms of being fired himself. The only reason that particular ax has not fallen is that there is not clear replacement on the staff (save having Garrett take up the OC duties himself, which was something that was judged to not be a good idea when they were largely taken from him by the Joneses) and changing the OC in midseason is pretty hard to do. Were the Cowboys even deeper in a hole, that might have come about. But the team still has a chance to turn things around over the last nine games, however faint it might be. And as we saw in the Jaguars game, Linehan can still do some good things calling plays. With the addition of Cooper, it is up to him to make things work better. Now he has a lot of motivation to win more games, if for no other reason than to make himself more employable if he is indeed fired.He should be. It will probably not be until after the season ends - unless things continue to go badly. This should be just a temporary reprieve, because he is the greatest cause of the struggles of the offense. Case closed. Custom Tennessee Titans Jerseys