On The Move: Breaking Down Amari Cooper On The Browns

Amari Cooper’s trade to Cleveland has been overshadowed not only by Davante Adams’ move to the Raiders and Tyreek Hill’s move to the Dolphins as the biggest WR deals, but also by the trade of QB Deshaun Watson as the biggest offseason move of the Browns. However, just because it is now under the radar, don’t think it isn’t important.

Cooper might have underwhelmed in 2021, but many Cowboys did. And even in an underwhelming campaign he still put up 68 receptions, 865 yards, and eight touchdowns, which matches a career high. When the trade first happened, it was a bit of a mixed bag in terms of fit. While Cooper was leaving a talented, high-scoring offense, he had fallen behind CeeDee Lamb as the primary target, drawing just 16% of the Cowboys’ targets. While that was sure to go up in Cleveland, he was joining one of the NFL’s most ground-centric offenses, with a mediocre QB who has often failed to support any high-end fantasy pass-catchers. Now, Deshaun Watson is the man under center and that dramatically changes Cooper’s outlook.

Cooper is the head and shoulders WR1 for the Browns, and that shouldn’t be affected by the potential return of Jarvis Landry, who was let go earlier this offseason. That’s great news for him, as Watson has hypertargeted his WR1 since entering the league. In the two seasons before being traded to Arizona, Hopkins drew 32% and 28% percent of the team’s targets, which is likely what Cooper can expect based on his competition for those looks. Watson also dramatically increases the quality of a receiver’s targets. With Hopkins gone, Will Fuller was elevated to the WR1 role and had a career year. Fuller played 11 games in 2019 and 2020; despite seeing just four more targets in 2020, Fuller put up 209 more yards, about 2.5 yards more per target and five more touchdowns. Whenever Watson is on the field, expect Cooper to be seeing loads of volume. 

Cooper also excels in a way that complements Watson’s strengths. If you took Watson’s 2020 numbers and stacked them up against the 2021 season, his yards per attempt (8.9) adjusted yards per attempt (9.5) and adjusted net yards per attempt (8.22) would be the most in the NFL. Cooper, per Reception Perception, was among the NFL’s best receivers on nine routes (66.3% success rate) and post routes (76.5%) and nearly 20% of his total routes run were nines. Cooper may not be a prototypical WR1, but his strengths dovetail very nicely with Watson’s on a team with little competition.

Cooper has long been one of the NFL’s most consistent producers. He’s eclipsed 1,000 receiving yards six times in eight seasons, and in both of those sub-1,000 yard campaigns he did not play a full season. He will not be easy for defenses to double either, because even though he’s the obvious focal point of the passing game, defenses still need to defend against Nick Chubb on the ground. This went from a neutral, or slight upgrade for Cooper to a slam dunk fantasy value increase. Cooper was the 17th WR off the board in 2021, and I expect to be higher than that on him entering draft season.