Cowboys Likely To Release WR Amari Cooper

Adam Schefter reports that the Cowboys are “likely” to release WR Amari Cooper by the start of the new league year on March 16.

Cooper is due $20 million in fully guaranteed money on the fifth day of the new league year and considering the Cowboys’ salary cap situation, releasing the veteran receiver for cap savings made some sense.

Releasing Cooper will result in $16 million of cap savings for the Cowboys while creating $6 million of dead money for the 2022 season. 

Cooper’s name has come up as a potential trade candidate this offseason, but given the cap hit teams would incur for him in a deal, it made more sense for them to wait to see if the Cowboys would just release him outright. 

Cooper, 27, is a former No. 4 overall pick by the Raiders out of Alabama in the 2015 NFL Draft. The Raiders traded him to the Cowboys for a first-round pick midway through the 2018 season.

Cooper played out the final year of his four-year, $22.7 million contract, as well as his fifth-year option which cost Dallas $13,924,000 for 2019. He was set to be an unrestricted free agent when he signed a five-year, $100 million contract with the Cowboys in 2020. 

Cooper is set to make a base salary of $20 million in 2022. 

In 2021, Cooper appeared in 15 games for the Cowboys and caught 68 passes for 865 yards receiving and eight touchdowns.

We’ll have more regarding Cooper as the news is available.