The Washington Commanders’ season-finale against the Dallas Cowboys could have colossal playoff implications. It’d be great if they didn’t need a win to qualify for the tournament, which makes the next three games following the bye week all the more important.
A readymade Super Bowl contender, the Cowboys have long been coined the favorites to sign Odell Beckham Jr. Jerry Jones, Mike McCarthy, and several of the team’s biggest stars have openly recruited Beckham to the midwest by waxing poetic on his career, and the impact he could have after he was a driving force in the Rams’ championship run last year before suffering a torn ACL against the Bengals.
Though a cool spectacle at first, Dallas’ recruitment of Beckham has grown stale after his widely-anticipated free agent tour with the club.
To say the Cowboys rolled out the red carpet for the receiver would be an understatement, as Micah Parsons and Trevon Diggs treated him to courtside seats at a Mavericks game, where he was showered with “OBJ” chants.
Despite wining and dining Beckham, he left without a contract offer after his physical sparked concerns about his recovery from ACL surgery.
After weeks of nonstop recruiting and fielding questions about Odell, the team’s obsession with adding the two-time Pro Bowler — piloted by Jerry Jones — is finally (and unsurprisingly) resulting in fatigue among Cowboys players.
DeMarcus Lawrence was asked if it’s fair to say he wants Cowboys to sign Odell Beckham Jr.
— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) December 7, 2022
“It’s fair to say I’m trying to reach a Super Bowl,” he said. “So if he can come and help us with that, then yes, I’ll accept him. But if we’re just gonna do the circus, no I don’t.”
Cowboys players getting tired of Odell Beckham Jr. chase is great content for Commanders fans.
Probably not great when one of your best players and most vocal leaders is publicly criticizing the team’s obsession with signing Beckham.
“Circus” is a pretty accurate description from Lawrence, too, considering the Cowboys pulled out all the stops to seduce Beckham when he visited Dallas only for him to leave without a contract offer. Dallas is also getting dragged for leaking Beckham’s injury concerns after the Bills and Giants refrained from doing so out of respect for the player. Does it get more dysfunctional than that?
If a defender like Lawrence is fed up with the Beckham chase, you can only imagine how members of the Cowboys’ high-octane offense are feeling.
Is Odell Beckham Jr. a player the Cowboys need or one they want?
— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) December 8, 2022
“For sure someone we want,” CeeDee Lamb said. “I mean, we just put up 50 points.”
Fellow WR Michael Gallup, coming off 2-TD game, agreed.
Good stuff, Jerry Jones! Your offense has scored 121 points in the last three games, and has scored 40 or more in three of five, and your obsession for generating headlines (pursuing a superstar like Beckham certainly qualifies) is starting to frustrate your own players … who actually wanted Beckham when the saga started.
Let’s see how QB1 feels, shall we?
Dak said if OBJ "can come in and play right now, 100% yeah we want him.
— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) December 8, 2022
"But I’ve got a lot of confidence in the guys that we have & where we’re going & guys getting their feet back underneath them & what we’ve built upon..I’m confident in what we have and know that we can win."
It’s probably time for Jones and McCarthy to listen to their players … you know the guys responsible for propelling the team into the Super Bowl conversation, and put this conversation to bed. Or, they could keep the Beckham discourse going for another couple weeks so tensions continue mounting.
It’s not often a team’s pursuit of a free agent comes home to roost, but the Cowboys are a different breed of dysfunction. Even when their on-field product is clicking on all cylinders, Jones finds a way to disrupt the vibes.
Talk about glorious content for Commanders fans during the bye week.