The Cowboys missed out on Odell Beckham Jr. but here is what they got instead

Odell Beckham Jr. will be a member of the Baltimore Ravens. News broke Sunday that the veteran receiver is signing a one-year deal worth up to $18 million. That is quite a large chunk of change for a player who missed the enter 2022 season recovering from an ACL injury. It took some time, but OBJ finally got the deal he was seeking and now he’ll be catching passes from the TBD quarterback in Baltimore.

For the Cowboys, this ties a nice little bow on the issue, but for all intents and purposes, this thing was over the moment the team traded for another veteran receiver in Brandin Cooks. Many fans were hoping for the former Giants star receiver to join this Dallas team, but after seeing his price tag, they could be singing a different tune. Sure, it would be nice to have a talent like Beckham Jr. (assuming he returns to full health), but the Cowboys front office is pretty cautious about how they go about allocating their cap resources, and there is so much more they could do with that money. For example, they could sign a slew of other players who could help the team.

Whether it’s their own players they want to keep or a couple of low-cost free agents to fill voids, the Cowboys can be quite thrifty with their signings. For the price of one wide receiver diva, they could get the following instead:

If you play the either-or game, we would venture to guess that people would prefer the combination of retaining four key defensive players over OBJ. The impact that Donovan Wilson, Leighton Vander Esch, Dante Fowler, and Johnathan Hankins have on this defense is very important, and keeping those guys around will help the Cowboys return one of the better defenses in the league.

Not only that, but they still have a little money left over to sign a couple of veteran reserves in running back Ronald Jones II and tackle Chuma Edoga. While those signings aren’t going to wow anyone, it’s still good to shore up their depth.

And if you are one that believes in the importance of the passing game and feel it’s worth it to spend extra resources to keep that area strong, well, you’re in luck because the Cowboys have done that too. In fact, not only have they added a proven talent at receiver, but they also got themselves a proven talent at cornerback to help them defend the pass.

This offseason the Cowboys traded away a couple of late-round draft picks to acquire Brandin Cooks from the Houston Texans. They then turned around and reconstructed his contract so that he’s costing Dallas $20 million over the span of two years at an average annual cost of $10 million. But before that, they traded another late-round draft pick to acquire Stephon Gilmore from the Indianapolis Colts. They will inherit his 2023 cap cost of $10 million. When comparing this to what OBJ costs, the Cowboys essentially got two good players for the price of one.

Beckham’s actual deal is for $15 million guaranteed with a chance to earn another $3 million in incentives, so it’s possible his price could be a little less. Here is the breakdown courtesy of Tom Pelissero: