Cowboys’ Stephen Jones echoes McCarthy on DeAndre Hopkins interest, ‘really pleased’ with current receivers

The Dallas Cowboys appear to be fully and truly content with their wide receiver room for the first time since trading away Amari Cooper to the Cleveland Browns for a couple late-round picks and cap relief last offseason. The indication of their satisfaction is the public lack of interest in three-time first-team All-Pro wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, the largest prize remaining in free agency. 

“He’s not on this team right now,” Cowboys COO and EVP Stephen Jones said Monday, per The Athletic. We went down the road with [Brandin] Cooks. We’re very comfortable with Cooks. We’re really pleased with our receiving group.”  

Jones’ assessment of the Cowboys’ receiver room is in lockstep with head coach and offensive play-caller Mike McCarthy, who also delivered a vote of confidence regarding the position. 

“I really like the look of our group,” McCarthy said on June 1, per the Dallas Morning News, when asked about the team’s interest in Hopkins. “There’s nothing good that comes out of those answers. Hop is a hell of a talent.”

Both Jones’ and McCarthy’s short but sweet remarks on the status of Dallas’ non-pursuit of Hopkins, 30, are a stark contrast to their months-long pursuit of former free agent receiver Odell Beckham Jr. before his price tag and the addition of Brandin Cooks altered the calculus. CeeDee Lamb, the team’s former first-round pick in the 2020 draft and top wideout, set career highs across the board in 2022 with 107 catches, 1,359 receiving yards and nine receiving touchdowns. That production earned him his second career Pro Bowl nod and Second Team All-Pro honors. 

After Lamb’s 107 catches accounted for 30% of the Cowboys’ team receptions, the second-highest rate in the NFL behind First-Team All-Pro Tyreek Hill’s 32% figure of the Miami Dolphins team catches, Dallas went out and acquired a legit No. 2 wide receiver for quarterback Dak Prescott via trade this offseason in Cooks, who has already earned rave reviews from teammates. No. 3 receiver Michael Gallup, the 27-year-old the Cowboys signed to a five-year, $57.5 million contract in the 2022 offseason shortly after tearing his ACL at the end of the 2021 season, feels “springy again” now that he is roughly a year-and-a-half removed from his knee injury. McCarthy also revealed Thursday that 2022 third-round pick wideout Jalen Tolbert “has made some really nice plays” in seven-on-seven and two-minute drills in OTAs, per The Athletic. 

That’s four receivers McCarthy feels comfortable with in his offense, more than enough reason for the salary cap-conscious Cowboys to pass on Hopkins with new deals looming on the horizon for Prescott, Lamb, Micah Parsons and Trevon Diggs.