June 27, 2019

It was a tale of two seasons for the Dallas Cowboys offense in 2018: before Amari Cooper and after Amari Cooper. While Dak Prescott got most of the attention for his improvements with Cooper in the fold, it can't be ignored how much that mid-season trade affected Michael Gallup as well. Gallup saw just 3.14 targets per game prior to Cooper's arrival, and averaged just over 27 yards per game. After the Cowboys scooped up the struggling-yet-talented wideout from Oakland, however, Gallup averaged just above five targets per game. His yardage didn't take a significant jump (just 35.2 yards per game), but the important takeaway here is that the volume did. The Cowboys offense had to expand and adjust on the fly with a legitimate number-one wide receiver on the field, and they did so effectively. Now with a full offseason and training camp ahead of them, it stands to reason that Gallup will benefit even more from having Cooper as his teammate. That said, we should temper expectations for what Gallup might be capable of in an offense with a run-first identity. The Cowboys will be considerably more balanced in 2019 than they were heading into last season, but there will only be so many targets to go around with Ezekiel Elliott carrying a majority of the offensive workload. Gallup's upside will depend heavily on the ability of opposing teams to blanket Cooper and force Prescott to look elsewhere. It seemed to work out well for him as a rookie, so perhaps bigger and better things are on the way. Gallup's draft day value is that of a mid-round, first-guy-off-the-bench player; his season-long ceiling is likely that of a weekly flex fixture, and there could be a handful of games in which he greatly outperforms that ceiling--especially if he starts catching touchdowns.--Chris O'Reilly