It’s easy to imagine what this Cowboys’ season would be like without Amari Cooper because we saw it for the first eight weeks of the season.
Opponents would stack the box to stuff Ezekiel Elliott while daring Dak Prescott, who was still struggling from his sophomore slump the previous year, to throw to his non-existent No. 1 receiver or a backup tight end playing the top spot. Presumably in this scenario, head coach Jason Garrett—he of one playoff victory—would be jettisoned on New Year’s Eve, and Dallas would enter a new era.
Cooper has changed all of that.