Sources: Cowboys to trade Cooper to Browns
The Dallas Cowboys have agreed to trade wide receiver Amari Cooper and a sixth-round pick to the Cleveland Browns for a…
The Dallas Cowboys agreed to trade wide receiver Amari Cooper and a sixth-round pick to the Cleveland Browns for a 2022 fifth-round pick and a sixth-round pick, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Saturday.
The deal is pending a physical and should be finalized by the middle of next week.
The Browns entered this offseason on the hunt to rebuild Baker Mayfield‘s wide receiving corps, which was a massive disappointment last year.
The Browns had high hopes that Odell Beckham Jr. could return to being a No. 1 wide receiver after suffering a season-ending injury in 2020. Instead, he was released by the team in early November. OBJ went on to win a Super Bowl with the Los Angeles Rams, while Cleveland’s passing game cratered on the way to a disappointing 8-9 finish.
The Browns, in fact, didn’t have a single wideout top 600 receiving yards, and only Jarvis Landry had more than 35 receptions.
Landry already was a question to return before the Browns landed Cooper. He has a $16.6 million cap hit with no guaranteed money left on the final year of his deal and seemed unlikely to be back, barring a drastic restructuring of his contract.
The Browns have granted permission to Landry to seek a trade, according to sources. In February, Landry tweeted that he’d like to remain in Cleveland, but the ball was in the Browns’ court. Landry is not a free agent but has no guaranteed money left on his deal.
Cooper, meanwhile, gives the Browns a proven No. 1 receiver they so desperately needed after the Beckham debacle.
Cooper, who turns 28 in June, ranked eighth in the league during his time in Dallas in targets (428) among receivers, seventh in receptions (292), ninth in receiving yards (3,893) and ninth in receiving touchdowns (27), according to ESPN Stats & Information data.
Cooper’s future with the Cowboys had been in question going back to last off-season when the club opted not to restructure his contract.
While he signed a five-year, $100 million contract in 2020, it was effectively a two-year deal worth $40 million with his 2021 base salary of $20 million not becoming fully guaranteed until March 20.
The Cowboys began trade talks at the NFL Scouting Combine and had multiple teams interested, per sources.
In moving on from Cooper, the Cowboys will have CeeDee Lamb move into the No. 1 receiver role. Lamb caught 79 passes for more than 1,000 yards last season and was added to the Pro Bowl. The Cowboys selected Lamb in the first round in 2020 and gave him the No. 88, a sign of what they believed he could become.
The Cowboys are close to signing Michael Gallup to a multi-year deal, per sources. Gallup suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in Week 17, had surgery in February but are confident he can be ready for game action in September. Gallup has one 1,000-yard season to his credit. Before suffering the knee injury he missed seven games with a calf strain.
–ESPN’s Todd Archer contributed to this report.
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