{"id":67438,"date":"2019-06-24T21:01:37","date_gmt":"2019-06-25T01:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=67438"},"modified":"2019-06-25T06:03:57","modified_gmt":"2019-06-25T10:03:57","slug":"michael-gallup-ready-to-make-the-leap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2019\/06\/24\/michael-gallup-ready-to-make-the-leap\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Gallup Ready to Make the Leap"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Cowboys<\/a> have a star-studded offense headlined by lightning rod quarterback Dak Prescott<\/a><\/strong>, star wide receiver Amari Cooper<\/a><\/strong>, and arguably the league\u2019s best running back in Ezekiel Elliott<\/a><\/strong>. Because of the big names, second-year wide receiver Michael Gallup<\/a><\/strong> is getting overlooked as a potential contributor. While he doesn\u2019t have the same upside as Cooper, the Colorado State product is primed to take a second-year leap and develop into one of the better WR2\u2019s in the league.<\/p>\n

Michael Gallup Primed For a Year Two Leap<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It\u2019s hard to view Michael Gallup\u2019s rookie season as anything other than a success. Appearing in all 16 games, the rookie finished the year with 33 receptions for 507 yards and two touchdowns. He finished eighth among rookie wide receivers in yardage and seventh in receptions. Gallup improved throughout the year, adding an additional eight receptions for 137 yards and touchdown in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

As is the case with most rookie wide receivers, Gallup took a while to find his NFL footing. Stuck in an uncreative offense with a poor supporting cast, Gallup recorded just seven receptions for 109 yards through six games. Despite the underwhelming numbers, Gallup still managed to put together a few nice plays early in the season.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/DLPatsThoughts\/status\/1143317117615390720<\/p>\n

Gallup first broke out in Week Seven against the Washington Redskins<\/a>. He finished the night with three receptions for 81 yards and a score, but most of that production came on one play. Dallas acquired Amari Cooper over their bye week and Gallup\u2019s production rose with a legitimate WR1 opposite him.<\/p>\n

Finally allowed to showcase his talent, Gallup recorded 23 receptions for 317 yards and one touchdown in nine games with Cooper. Gallup showed immense potential as a perimeter receiver, as Dak Prescott found great success targeting him on go routes and comebacks.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/DLPatsThoughts\/status\/1143318661744254976<\/p>\n

Gallup is fantastic at tracking the ball in the air and knows exactly where the sideline is and how much room he has. He excels at timing his jumps and catching the ball at its’ highest trajectory. Gallup\u2019s also capable of getting open on his own but showed an impressive ability to catch tight passes and extend for the ball.<\/p>\n

What to Work On<\/h3>\n

Michael Gallup needs to work on improving his overall route tree. The Cowboys used Gallup almost exclusively on the sideline, either running go routes or comeback routes. While there\u2019s certainly a role for players like that, Gallup will need to add more to his arsenal if he\u2019s to become a legitimate starter.<\/p>\n

In fairness, the Cowboys started to expand Gallup\u2019s route tree later in the season. After spending most of the season running up the sideline, Dallas started to use Gallup on inside slant routes in the final weeks of the season. He looked natural running those patterns, but he\u2019ll need to build on that heading into 2019. It\u2019s also fair to mention former offensive coordinator Scott Linehan<\/strong> ran one of the blandest schemes in the league. Thanks to that uncreative playcalling, Gallup never had the opportunity to run a full route tree. For all we know, Gallup could be a pretty decent route runner. Kellen Moore<\/a><\/strong> seems intent on opening up the playbook, and Gallup could be the primary beneficiary.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/DLPatsThoughts\/status\/1143319768306466822<\/p>\n

If Gallup can improve his route tree, then he should be able to improve his weekly consistency. As great as Gallup was down the stretch, he wasn\u2019t a high-volume guy. Gallup only had one game with more than five receptions, and that was in the NFC Divisional Round. Non-elite outside receivers typically don’t accumulate receptions like Jarvis Landry<\/a><\/strong> or Julian Edelman<\/a><\/strong>, but the Cowboys clearly want to get Gallup more involved in the game. His 48.5% catch rate will need to improve, and that begins with improving his route running and separation skills.<\/p>\n

Main photo:
\nEmbed from Getty Image<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Michael Gallup is poised for a big 2019 after putting together a solid rookie season in 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":67442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,54],"tags":[489,302,49,258,61,3571,40],"class_list":["post-67438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cowboys","category-editorials","tag-amari-cooper","tag-dak-prescott","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-ezekiel-elliott","tag-football","tag-michael-gallup","tag-nfl"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}