{"id":51846,"date":"2018-10-22T18:01:49","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T22:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=51846"},"modified":"2018-10-22T18:01:49","modified_gmt":"2018-10-22T22:01:49","slug":"amari-cooper-traded-cowboys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2018\/10\/22\/amari-cooper-traded-cowboys\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakland Raiders Trade Amari Cooper to Dallas Cowboys"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/C\/CoopAm00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Amari Cooper<\/a><\/strong> is on his way to Big D.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/raiders\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oakland Raiders<\/a> agreed to trade the fourth-year wide receiver to the <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/cowboys\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dallas Cowboys<\/a> in exchange for a first-round pick. It ends near-constant speculation in recent weeks that Cooper&#8217;s days in Oakland were numbered.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Cowboys?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Cowboys<\/a> are sending a first-round pick to the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Raiders?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Raiders<\/a> for WR Amari Cooper, source said. Big move for Dallas.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RapSheet\/status\/1054450312659001345?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 22, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h1><strong>Amari Cooper Traded to Dallas Cowboys<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>Cooper is the second high profile player <strong>Jon Gruden<\/strong> has shipped out of Oakland in his desire to remake the Raiders in his own image. Before the start of the season,<a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/24543080\/chicago-bears-reach-agreement-trade-khalil-mack-oakland-raiders\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> the Raiders traded<\/a> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/M\/MackKh00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Khalil Mack<\/a><\/strong> to the <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/bears\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chicago Bears<\/a> after the two sides couldn&#8217;t come to terms on a new deal for the All-Pro edge rusher.<\/p>\n<p>Both moves are certainly geared towards building for the future. As a result of Cooper&#8217;s departure, the Raiders now have three picks in the first round of the 2019\u00a0NFL Draft. Considering they currently stand at 1-5, it&#8217;s possible that at least one of them ends up coming\u00a0very early.<\/p>\n<p>Dealing Cooper to Dallas also clears a significant amount of cap space off Oakland books for next season. The Cowboys are assuming his fifth-year option which will pay him $13.9 million in 2019. As a result, the Raiders now have $74.7 million in cap space, per OverTheCap.com.<\/p>\n<p>Cooper burst onto the scene after the Raiders took him fourth overall in the 2015 draft. He totaled 1,070 yards and caught six touchdown passes for a team that went 7-9 and looked to be on the cusp of competitiveness. That turned out to be the case a year later when Oakland finished the 2016 season with a 12-4 record, clinching their first playoff berth since 2002. Cooper tallied five touchdown catches that year while finishing eighth in the league with 1,153 receiving yards.<\/p>\n<p>It led to Cooper earning Pro Bowl honors in both seasons.<\/p>\n<p>But the Alabama product took a bit of a step back last season. Though he\u00a0registered seven touchdown grabs, his production was sporadic at best. He exceeded 100 yards receiving just twice, and nearly a third of his yardage for the season came in a Thursday night shootout with the <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/chiefs\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> in Week Seven.<\/p>\n<p>That volatility in production continued in 2018. Cooper did exceed the 100-yard\u00a0mark in games against the Denver Broncos and Cleveland Browns. But in the Raiders other four contests, he managed a paltry 36 yards with no touchdowns. It includes a goose egg in what will go down in his final appearance in a Raiders uniform, a 27-3 loss to the <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/seahawks\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Seattle Seahawks<\/a> in London.<\/p>\n<p>Cooper will hope to revive his career as the showpiece of a Cowboys receiving corps that includes slot receiver <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/BeasCo00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cole Beasley<\/a><\/strong> and rookie <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/2018\/03\/23\/michael-gallup-2018-nfl-draft-profile\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Michael Gallup<\/strong><\/a>. In theory, he provides a big-bodied target for third-year signal caller <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/P\/PresDa01.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dak Prescott<\/a><\/strong> that could help supercharge a unit which ranks 27th league-wide in receiving yards. Of course, time will tell if he can justify what Dallas gave away for him.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"-n6HCbMsRJFvGCFnCcwtBg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1034542916\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'-n6HCbMsRJFvGCFnCcwtBg',sig:'cGhLbawu9RadyIzkAde9Ox6MkPUkeDoJTRtwEvnQz2g=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1034542916',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amari Cooper is on his way to Big D, with the Oakland Raiders dealing the underperforming wide receiver to the Dallas Cowboys for a 2019 first-round pick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":742,"featured_media":51854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,17,36],"tags":[489,302,49,61,40,157],"class_list":["post-51846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cowboys","category-raiders","category-nfl-news","tag-amari-cooper","tag-dak-prescott","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-oakland-raiders"],"modified_by":"John Bava","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/742"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}