Leave it to Oakland Raiders head coach Jon Gruden and the Dallas Cowboys to make headlines on a Monday morning. Fourth-year wide receiver Amari Cooper is officially on his way from Oakland to Dallas. While this move obviously has giant impacts on both the Cowboys and Raiders organization, it also affects your fantasy team. The Amari Cooper trade affects several players on both the Cowboys and Raiders, both positively and negatively.
Fantasy Football: Winners, Losers of Amari Cooper Trade
Big Winner: Jordy Nelson (and Jared Cook)
The biggest winner in this trade is wide receiver Jordy Nelson. Nelson, the longtime member of the Green Bay Packers, is now the unquestioned top option in the Oakland Raiders passing game. So far on the season, Nelson has 22 receptions for 323 yards and three touchdowns. This production will likely increase as quarterback Derek Carr really doesn’t have any other consistent wide receiver to throw to.
Nelson is owned in 69.1% of fantasy leagues, but it’s worth checking to see if he’s available. If he is, make sure to put in a claim for the first-year Raider. He’s fresh off his bye week and has scored a touchdown in three of his past four games.
Ditto for tight end Jared Cook. If you play in a league where either player is available, make sure to put in a claim.
Big Loser: Amari Cooper
Ironically, Amari Cooper himself is the biggest loser of this trade, at least for the remainder of 2018. Cooper is going from a Raiders offense stuck in first gear to a Cowboys offense that doesn’t even have an engine. Cooper will not only need to learn the entire playbook on the fly, but also develop a chemistry with Dak Prescott. This arduous task will be made even harder considering Prescott’s unwillingness to test defenses downfield.
Additionally, from a pure fantasy standpoint, Cooper owners will need to deal with a second consecutive bye week. Bye weeks are always annoying to navigate, and thanks to this trade, Cooper will miss yet another game. As it is, Cooper doesn’t offer that much of a ceiling to hold through one bye week. Holding through two when he needs to learn a whole new offense and develop chemistry with a different quarterback is a difficult decision.
Cooper will see time on the field, but if that’s all it took to be productive, Allen Hurns would be a superstar. At this point, it’s probably worth shopping Cooper around to see what you can get. Just like Oakland, maybe you can be pleasantly surprised with what a desperate team has to offer.
Slight Winner: Dak Prescott
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott obviously benefits from this trade, but not as much as one might think. The Cowboys currently lack playmakers on the outside, so Cooper’s presence should help open up the field. Cooper’s presence in Dallas will not only give Prescott a somewhat reliable outside target, but it could open up the middle of the field for Cole Beasley.
However, this isn’t as big a win as one might think. For one, Prescott is at his best when he’s throwing short, quick passes to the slot or perimeter. He’s not necessarily a guy who wants to take chances downfield. Cooper, on the other hand, is reliant on chunk yardage and big plays. Right now, this doesn’t look like a natural fit. Cooper is an upgrade over what Dallas currently has, but he’s certainly not good enough to make Prescott anything more than a fringe streaming candidate.
Slight Loser: Derek Carr
Derek Carr loses perhaps his most physically gifted target, but this shouldn’t affect his fantasy value that drastically. Carr has largely put up all of his numbers this season, for better or worse, without Amari Cooper. On the season, Cooper has just 22 receptions for 280 yards and a touchdown. This includes his final two games with Oakland where he recorded just one catch for ten yards.
Carr prefers to check the ball down while Cooper needs to be targeted deep to be effective. This pairing was never the best in the world, and now Carr can go back to targeting Jordy Nelson and Jared Cook in the intermediate parts of the field. Obviously, losing somebody as talented as Cooper won’t help Carr’s production, but it shouldn’t be a kiss of death. Carr was a matchup streamer before this trade, and he remains a matchup streamer after it.
Value Relatively Unchanged: Cole Beasley
Cooper’s arrival in Dallas should have little-to-no effect on the Cowboys current top receiver. Even though Cooper and Beasley play the same position, there’s barely any overlap in their games. As previously mentioned, Cooper is a player who is best utilized on the outside for chunk yardage.
Beasley, meanwhile, is a slot receiver in the mold of Wes Welker. While he’s not as good as peak Welker, he lives in the slot and earns his fantasy production through volume. He’s always where Prescott needs him to be and can pick up hard-earned yards over the middle. Cooper will not take targets away from Beasley, as the Cowboys will ask these players to do completely different things. The only possible effect this could have on Beasley is if Cooper’s presence opens up the middle of the field a bit more.
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