Sportsnaut
The Las Vegas Raiders were hit with Jakobi Meyers’ trade request on Monday, just 12 days before they’re set to kick off the regular season. While the Raiders’ initial plans are to basically ignore Meyers’s request as he plays out the final year of his contract after a career year, now they’re making other plans at the receiver position.
According to the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Raiders have now signed five-time Pro Bowl receiver Amari Cooper to a one-year contract.
While Cooper had long been lurking in free agency, the Raiders are an ideal landing spot for the former Raiders, Cowboys, Browns, and Bills receiver. Not only does it place him back with the franchise that once selected him with the fourth overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, Cooper figures to arrive as one of the team’s top three receivers.
In what’s expected to be an offense that features plenty of deep passes downfield, Cooper should get more opportunities than he received last season when he recorded just 44 receptions for 547 yards and four touchdowns.
While he’s a five-time Pro Bowler with seven 1,000-yard seasons to his name, Cooper is now 31 years old. Still, it was just in 2023 when he recorded a career-high 1,250 receiving yards with the Browns. In other words, the Raiders may have just found a bit of a forgotten gem in free agency, at a fraction of the typical cost for an impact player, especially a receiver.
But now it’s on Cooper and the Raiders to live up to their potential. If Meyers can settle his grievance with the Raiders, it gives them a pretty formidable group of skill position players. From Brock Bowers to Ashton Jeanty, Meyers, and now Cooper, this offense should be drastically better than the one that ranked 29th in scoring last season.
Related: Jakobi Meyers Requests Trade: 5 Ideal Destinations for 1,000-Yard Receiver
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