A decade after he was drafted by the Raiders, Amari Cooper is back with the Silver and Black.
Cooper, a 2015 first-round selection of the franchise, is signing a one-year, $3.5 million deal with the Raiders, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported. The contract carries a $6 million max value with $500,000 in per-game roster bonuses and $2 million in available incentives.
The news of Cooper's signing comes just hours after Rapoport and NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero reported receiver Jakobi Meyers requested a trade out of Las Vegas after the two sides were unable to negotiate a new contract.
With training camps in full swing, Cooper has been sitting atop Gregg Rosenthal's Top 101 free agents list as countless waves of free agency went by the wayside. The five-time Pro Bowler has finally settled on a spot and will don a different jersey for the third time in the last two years after splitting the 2024 campaign with the Cleveland Browns and Buffalo Bills.
Having turned 31 in June, Cooper returns to a vastly different Raiders team in a dramatically different role.
Taken fourth overall in 2015 by an Oakland Raiders team coached by Jack Del Rio with Reggie McKenzie as the general manager, Cooper is joining the Las Vegas Raiders, with Pete Carroll as his new head coach and GM John Spytek having worked out his new deal.
Back then, Cooper was a young star ready to shine. Now, he'll be the most experienced and accomplished member of the Raiders receiving crew.
Second-season tight end Brock Bowers will be viewed as quarterback Geno Smith's top target. Beyond Meyers, the Raiders WR corps includes three rookies -- second-rounder Jack Bech, fourth-rounder Dont'e Thornton Jr. and sixth-rounder Tommy Mellott -- along with speedster Tre Tucker. There's a dearth of proven talent and the hope is obvious that Cooper will remedy that in some facet.
He will potentially be looked upon as a mentor and certainly as a stabilizing and experienced target for Smith.
Cooper heads to Vegas with 10 seasons, 154 games and 143 starts under his belt, having played three-plus years with the Raiders to begin his career before he was traded for the first of three times. He was sent to the Dallas Cowboys in 2018 and spent another three-plus seasons with them before he was shipped to the Browns ahead of the 2022 campaign. Last season, Cleveland traded him yet again, this time to the Bills.
In his career, Cooper has produced 711 receptions, 10,033 yards and 64 touchdowns.
Last year was the least productive of his tenure, though. With the Browns and Bills, he combined for 44 catches for 547 yards and four TDs in 14 games.
In 2023 with the Browns, he had a career-best 1,250 yards and went to the Pro Bowl. He's not that far removed from peak production and will aim to show he's still got juice left.
Once more a Raider, Cooper returns to the team he began his career with, looking to help kick off another new era for the Silver and Black.
