Mailbag: Special teams value at wide receiver?

(Editor's Note: Time to check the mail! The DallasCowboys.com staff writers answer your questions here in 'Mailbag' presented by Miller Lite.)

From year to year, the wide receiver room depth usually depends on special teams. So if they decide to keep only five receivers on the roster, would you rather have KaVonte Turpin's return speed on special teams over Jonathan Mingo's or Camden Brown's size, pursuit and tackling? Why is Turpin considered such a lock? It seems like choosing a luxury over practicality. – Marco Aspaas/Vancouver, WA

Mickey: With last season's special teams performance rather poor, not sure diminishing your second-best special teams threat (Brandon Aubrey the first) is a wise move. How many teams out there have a three-time Pro Bowl return guy, a threat to take the ball to the house with every touch like Turpin, just to keep your fourth or fifth receiving threat. Please. Let's get real. If you prefer, keep five receivers and Turpin as your C.J. Goodwin of special teams. And by the way, none of those other wide receivers you are keeping have the speed threat of Turpin, something this offense desperately needs in three or four receiver formations to keep defenses from ganging up on CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens with double teams. Turpin is not a luxury. He is a necessity. Well worth the $4.6 million cap hit, as opposed to the $2.4 million in dead money if released.

Tommy: Yes I would still rather have Turpin, and if you're limiting me to five, I'm probably taking Jonathan Mingo. That's nothing against Camden Brown, he's been phenomenal, but I'd rather have the experience, albeit limited, that Mingo has.

I'll also say this: I think the Cowboys should keep both Mingo and Brown. I think those are your two guys that give you more value on special teams, with Turpin doing that but in a very different way, which is why Turpin needs to be on this team.

I don't think Turpin is going to be a 1,000 yard receiver in his career, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't have value offensively. Every time he's on the field, defenses need to account for the chance that he can run past everybody and get open deep. It won't happen all the time, but sometimes that threat opens things up for guys like CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens, etc.

And every once in a while too, Turpin makes defenses pay. Just look at Dallas' Christmas game against the Commanders last season. I think that's valuable, both on offense and special teams.