Getty Former Raiders WR Amari Cooper.
Since the Raiders traded away Amari Cooper to the Dallas Cowboys, he’s become one of the most infamous figures in the fan base. His perceived lack of care during his final season in Oakland rubbed a lot of fans the wrong way. Once he joined the Cowboys, his production went way up. They even rewarded Cooper with a monster contract this past offseason.
Unfortunately for Dallas, this season has gone as bad as possible. Even prior to Dak Prescott getting hurt, the team wasn’t playing well. Cooper has a strong rapport with Prescott and his production has gone down without the star quarterback. Cooper had one of his worst games since joining the Cowboys in Week 8 against the Philadelphia Eagles. With a third-string quarterback throwing to him, Cooper only had one catch for five yards.
The bad game isn’t all on him considering the quarterback play but Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham took an eye-opening shot at Cooper.
“I knew the rap sheet on him. His body language is bad, so when you see his body language [worsen] I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m about to get him.’ So I started talking to him,” Graham told ESPN. “He was gone. He’s like, man, I can’t wait until Dak Prescott gets back. That’s the type of face he had.”
A major critique of Cooper has always been that when the going gets tough, he starts to fold. It happened in Oakland and it’s happened in Dallas. He’s not the type of guy who is going to help elevate a bad team.
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Cooper Still Having a Strong Season
Despite the comments from Graham, Cooper is having a solid season and is on pace to get over 1,000 receiving yards. His 655 receiving yards are good for 10th best in the NFL right now. However, 401 of those yards came in the first four weeks of the season, when Prescott was healthy.
Cooper only has 254 yards in the last five games. It doesn’t help that he doesn’t have a consistent quarterback throwing him the ball but he’s clearly not elevating his game.
Are Raiders Winning Cooper Trade?
Johnathan Abram lowered the BOOM 💥
(via @thecheckdown)
There’s not necessarily a clear answer when talking about who won the Amari Cooper trade. Both teams appear happy with what they got in return. The Cowboys obviously like Cooper or they wouldn’t have given him so much money in the offseason.
With the first-round pick the Raiders got in return from Dallas, they drafted defensive back Johnathan Abram. While he missed the majority of his rookie season, he’s played most of the current season and the team loves him. His personality is the polar opposite of Cooper’s. He’s fiery, loud, passionate and energetic. He’s still working out some kinks but he’s quickly becoming one of the Raiders’ most important defenders.
The future is incredibly bright for Abram if he can stay healthy. If he continues to improve while Cooper keeps getting criticized for his body language, it’s hard to imagine the Raiders won’t look like the winners in hindsight.
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