Bleacher Report pitches wild Cowboys-Browns trade as ‘ideal’ move
For weeks now, there have been rumors floating around that the Dallas Cowboys may cut Amari Cooper in order to free up some much-needed cap money. The Cowboys would be able to save $16 million by cutting the former fourth-overall pick. Some fans think getting rid of Cooper after having one of his worst years in the league is fair game. Others think it makes zero sense to cut a guy with so much potential.
The nuts and bolts of it is that Cooper was the highest paid receiver in the NFL this year ($20 million) and he didn’t perform. It was his first under 1,000 yard season since 2017 and only his second time to have under 1,000 yards in his seven-year career. Although Cooper himself advocated for getting more targets, the wide receiver seemed to be outperformed by other receivers on the roster.
Bleacher Report released a list of the “most ideal” trade scenarios for all 32 NFL teams. While this may make some sense for the Cleveland Browns, it may not be the preferred scenario for the Cowboys. Bleacher Report’s Alex Ballentine suggested that Dallas should trade Cooper to the Browns so that they can save some money by Cleveland picking up his contract. Why? Because Dallas would also get something in return for letting go of their star receiver. This “something in return” was unspecified by Ballentine.
While many don’t want to see Cooper go, several comments from both Stephen and Jerry Jones suggest that they weren’t happy with the receiver this year. They believed his production was not nearly equal to his paycheck. So, do you think the Joneses would be interested in trading Cooper rather than cutting him? Or is Jerry up to his usual antics and just dangling Cooper’s future around in hopes of scaring him into performing better (AKA the same thing Jerry did to Mike McCarthy)?
Stephen Jones on Amari Cooper: "It sometimes not all on the receiver. It's scheme. It's getting the receiver the ball. It's the targets ... But if you're going to pay somebody a lot of money, you want them to be the best at what they do ... with that comes high expectations."
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) February 2, 2022
Bleacher Report suggests that an ideal trade for the Cleveland Browns would be to get Amari Cooper from the Dallas Cowboys
There’s no denying that the Browns would be thrilled to have Cooper. Whether or not Baker Mayfield stays, they lost Odell Beckham Jr. and they are likely to lose Jarvis Landry (who was a shell of himself this past season) as well. The Cowboy would come in and be an undoubted WR1 for Cleveland. Regardless of who is at the helm, the Browns need better receivers added to their roster. The fact that Cooper is signed through 2024 would also be a nice bonus for Cleveland if he ends up being the receiver they are hoping for.
With heavy speculation that Cleveland will move on from Landry, the money saved from cutting or trading Landry (about $15 million) could go directly to signing Cooper. But is it really “ideal” for Cleveland to cut Landry “in order to save money” and then immediately throw that money into Cooper? Ballentine seems to think that GM Andrew Berry would be wise to take advantage of the Cowboys’ salary cap issues and sucker them into giving up their star receiver in order to gain money and draft picks or players.
So…would the Browns send Landry to Dallas in this case? Is that something the Cowboys would even want? Overall this trade seems a bit far-fetched. The main point is that if the Cowboys front office does decide to cut Cooper, several teams that are in need of good wide receivers will be chomping at the bit to get the Cowboy on their roster. Is cutting Cooper rather than restructuring contracts worth it to the Joneses? Only time will tell.