Apparently, three years is when Amari Cooper’s expiration date comes up. The former Raider’s first-round pick was traded to the Cowboys six games into his fourth season for a first-round pick.
A season later, he got a huge five-year, $100 million contract. Two years into that contract, the Cowboys are already looking to dump him. According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, they are looking to trade Cooper and if no one makes an offer, they’ll cut the four-time Pro Bowler.
At the time of the trade, everyone seemed to need to decide a winner and a loser. My take was it was a win-win. Cooper was clearly not happy with the Raiders and was coming off a season in which his targets had dropped to nearly half what they had been. Not to mention he was approaching decision-making time with regard to his contract. To get a first-round pick back for him was a win for the Raiders.
But the Cowboys also got one of the league’s better receivers, and he immediately began paying dividends for them. His production went through the roof over the final nine games of the 2018 season, and he headed back to the Pro Bowl, helping the Cowboys make the playoffs.
He kept up the production of the following two seasons. But his hefty contract has the Cowboys ready to cut ties.
Last season was the first Cooper made $22 million. It was also his worst statistical season since 2017. The Cowboys have two receivers in Michael Gallup and Cedrick Wilson who are headed for free agency. They figure they can sign both of them for less than the cost of Cooper alone. And with CeeDee Lamb still on his rookie deal, the Cowboys would be set at receiver.
Now we wait to see if any team is willing to take on Coop’s massive contract in a trade or just wait for him to hit the market and compete for his services at that time.
