Redskins: The case for and against signing Amari Cooper
The case against signing Amari Cooper
There’s no doubt that everything I’ve listed above is true about the Redskins offense. They have been among the NFL’s worst passing offenses, big-play offenses, and total offenses in general.
Their offense the past couple of seasons has been very vanilla with a true lack of any sort of dynamic or variety in the offense. In D.C., the offense has been your typical, run on first down, run on second down, play to the sticks on third.
It’s an understatement how mediocre the Redskins offense has been the past couple of seasons. And it’s no secret the Redskins will look to repair the holes that exist on it during the offseason.
More from Riggo's Rag
- What will Emmanuel Forbes bring to the Washington Commanders?
- Highlighting the best Commanders 2023 NFL Draft betting props
- 3 late Commanders rumors drawing buzz ahead of the 2023 NFL Draft
- 4 bold predictions for the Commanders 2023 NFL Draft
- Commanders News: Chase Young trade, draft day, CB riser and Sam Howell
Some would argue that the Redskins offense has more drastic needs than wide receiver, like tight end, left tackle, and right tackle. And because of that, the Redskins should look to spread money to an abundance of adequate talent rather than go all-in on one skill position player.
That being clear, how much better does one receiver make your offense? I’ll take it a step further, how much better does your offense become when you have multiple holes on that side of the ball, and you end up paying one player nearly $20 million a season, essentially having to be relegated to settle for mediocre free agent signings to follow?
That’s quite a steep price to pay if the payoff from that one player isn’t as significant as you hoped for. According to Spotrac.com, Amari Cooper’s market value is a contract of 5 years, $98.5 million with an average annual value of $19.7 million. The expectations for Amari Cooper, especially at $20 million annually, will likely be ones he cannot fill.
Cooper is a top 10 wide receiver in the NFL today. But with a Redskins team that has a variety of big needs on both sides of the ball, regardless of the amount of cap space that you do have, tying nearly $100 million into one receiver might not be the best-case scenario for a team with a plethora of holes.
Considering the Redskins just hit a big bust of a free agent contract in Paul Richardson and that this 2020 NFL Draft is serving up to be one of the deepest wide receiver drafts in NFL history, the smart move for the Redskins financially wouldn’t be signing a fringe-top-10 receiver to a market-setting contract like the one mentioned above.