Five-Time Pro Bowl Wide Receiver Inks Deal with the Raiders
The Buffalo Bills made headlines at the 2024 trade deadline when they traded for Amari Cooper. After starting off 4-2, the Bills established themselves as a run-heavy team because of their group of lackluster outside receivers led by rookie Keon Coleman and journeyman Mack Hollins, which led to the team trading for Cooper. NFL Insider Ian Rapoport reported that Cooper agreed with the Las Vegas Raiders on a one-year deal. The 31-year-old hopes to bounce back after an underwhelming season split between the Browns and Bills.
Cooper had a career year in 2023, catching 72 passes for 1,250 yards and five touchdowns in 15 games en route to a fifth Pro Bowl selection. That season was even more impressive considering the fact that he had a carousel of quarterbacks throwing him the ball in Cleveland. Cooper caught passes from Joe Flacco, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, P.J. Walker, and Deshaun Watson in 2023, establishing him as a reliable number-one receiver whom teams had their eyes on. After making Highmark Stadium his new NFL home, his numbers didn’t come close to those in ‘23. In eight games, the 2015 fourth-overall pick accumulated only 20 receptions for less than 300 yards and two touchdowns. For comparison, in Cooper’s final regular season game of 2023, he hauled in 11 receptions for 265 yards and two scores. Whether his decline was a result of offensive coordinator Joe Brady’s “Everybody Eats” mantra keeping Cooper’s snaps limited or simply a lack of knowledge of Brady’s playbook, he’ll be looking to bounce back in a big way in 2025.
Surprisingly, this contract is just the third one that Cooper has signed in his NFL career. After putting up 203 receptions for 2,903 yards and 18 touchdowns in three seasons, the Raiders announced that they would exercise the fifth-year option of the then-23-year-old receiver. Fast forward six months later and the Raiders were already done with the young route runner, trading him to the Cowboys in the middle of the 2018 season for a first-round pick. Jerry Jones was more than happy to make that deal since the Cowboys made it all the way to the NFC Divisional Round, making that pick the 27th-overall selection, which the Raiders used to select Johnathan Abram. After playing a season and a half under his rookie deal in Dallas, the former Alabama Crimson Tide wide receiver signed a five-year, $100 million extension to stay in Dallas. However, Cooper couldn’t find a permanent home there either, getting dealt in the 2022 offseason to the Browns and then playing the last season of that Dallas extension in Buffalo. Hopefully, Cooper will finish out this contract by staying on one team through the duration of it.
