Report: Cowboys visit with Odell Beckham Jr. over, lack of workout a key sticking point

Dec 7, 2022 - 12:25 AM

From about the time that they came out of the bye the Dallas Cowboys have been doing two things - playing incredible football (the fourth quarter against the Green Bay Packers as the one notable exception) and being connected to Odell Beckham Jr. as a potential destination.

For weeks now there have been updates that were not really updates and also updates that were actually updates. Things finally picked up some actual steam this week when Beckham visited the team on Monday, the third visit he participated in after meeting with both the New York Giants and Buffalo Bills.

The Cowboys did all of the right things from a public perspective here. Over the last few weeks their players have been vocal about wanting him on their roster, and on Monday night Micah Parsons and Trevon Diggs attended a Dallas Mavericks game and sat court side with Beckham as a part of the recruitment.

It does not seem like the Cowboys will be signing Odell Beckham Jr. any time soon

At the end of the day, though, this was always going to come back to the medical issue what with Beckham returning from a torn ACL that he suffered in the Super Bowl. On Tuesday afternoon, it was reported that Odell is unlikely to play until at least the postseason which certainly changes the math a bit as far as expectations go, and on Tuesday evening it was noted that a lack of workout for him with the team was a sticking point of sorts and indication at how things might go.

Neither reports specifically note this but reading between the lines it seems like there will be no deal between Beckham and the Cowboys. It makes complete and total sense for Beckham to want security through next year when he will be able to contribute for more of a season, but it also makes sense for Dallas to be focused on the here and now given that they are one of the best teams in the NFL and very capable of finally ending their Super Bowl drought.

This ultimately just feels like the player and team are not in the same place right now which is totally fine. The chase for Beckham has been an exciting one given how high profile he is, but the Cowboys have gotten to this point by doing a lot of things that many people (I am raising my hand to be clear) disagreed with and thought would spell doom. They have earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to decisions about their roster.

The Dallas Cowboys did add a veteran cornerback on Tuesday, though

While there is no new wide receiver on the Cowboys roster today (we continue to wait patiently for James Washington though), there is a new cornerback and his name is Mackensie Alexander.

The Cowboys lost Anthony Brown on Sunday for the rest of the season to a torn Achilles and were already down a starting cornerback with Jourdan Lewis going down a few weeks ago. Alexander is a former second-round pick (2016) of the Minnesota Vikings.

The Cowboys still have second-year players in Kelvin Joseph and Nahshon Wright who are going to be tasked with more now, and also have Kendall Sheffield on the roster as well. Mackensie Alexander now joins the group available to Al Harris and Dan Quinn.

The Cowboys still only had 52 players on the roster after waiving Tarell Basham (who wound up on the Tennessee Titans practice squad by the way) last week.