The Raiders signed 31-year-old Amari Cooper on Monday, and it was a move that added much-needed depth to the team’s wide receiver room.
Outside of Jakobi Meyers, who is currently in a contract squabble with the team, the Raiders didn’t have any veteran influence among their wide receivers other than Tre Tucker (who is only entering his third NFL season) prior to signing Cooper.
It will be interesting to see if Cooper factors into the wide receiver rotation right away, but in the bigger picture at least one media personality covering the team was adamantly against the decision to take reps away from the Raiders’ young wide receivers.
“I think every decision should be about 2026 and 2027. This [decision to sign Cooper was] not about 2026 and 2027. This is about 2025,” the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Adam Hill said on the Vegas Nation First and 10 podcast. “I don’t know if you added any wins based on making that move.”
“You did hamstring the development of a couple of your young receivers. I don’t think there’s much question,” Hill continued. “I do believe in Jack Bech and his future. I don’t think he’s ready and I think Pete Carroll has seen that. He wants another guy out there. Dont’e Thornton has shown a little bit more flashes, but he’s not quite there consistently yet either, so they go and get a guy that they know is a pro, that knows how to make plays at this level, and that’s fine.”
“I don’t think you made your team significantly better. I think you incrementally improved and at what cost. There’s no way to quantify how much it hamstrings the development, but I think it does. I just don’t like it. I understand why they did it. They want to try to win right now… I don’t get it. But your coach is 73 years old. Let’s be honest about that.”
Hill’s co-host on the podcast, Vinny Bonsignore, went on to say that Cooper’s signing wasn’t necessarily a decision that GM John Spytek would have made without Pete Carroll’s persistence.
“I’m going to say this. I think this is a Pete Carroll move completely,” Bonsignore said. “There was probably a little bit of arm wrestling going on about this one. You have a veteran coach who wants to win right now. Amari Cooper is going to come in and whether he makes the Raiders better, we’re going to find out.”
“But what he is going to do, I believe, is potentially roadblock a couple of young players that the organization drafted this year. I’m talking specifically about Dont’e Thornton, maybe even Tre Tucker. His time might get reduced because of this. Dont’e Thornton’s time might get reduced because of this indirectly, even though they don’t necessarily play the same position. Jack Bech, the rookie from TCU’s time is undoubtedly going to be impacted by this if Amari Cooper is healthy and he’s contributing and he’s out there playing. I wouldn’t have done it,” Bonsignore continued.
“I’m not going to say that everybody in that building was gung-ho about this move, but I do believe… if the head coach wants him and he’s like, ‘This is one that I really want’… sometimes as a general manager, as an organization, as that side of the building, you side with your head coach, whether it’s part of your master plan or goes against kind of what you’re trying to do in terms of rebuilding this roster. I think this is one that gave the head coach and you just move on.”
At Tuesday’s press conference, Cooper was pretty clear that Carroll had been recruiting him for a while, so there’s no question he had the head coach in his corner from the start.
Additionally, it’s fair to wonder if the addition of Cooper might have been a concession on Spytek’s part with Jakobi Meyers’ contract situation in mind.
There are reasons to believe Meyers will end up working out a compromise with the Raiders on his current deal, but Raider Nation Radio host Q Myers hinted this week that Carroll is probably one of louder voices in the building in favor of extending Meyers’ contract before the season.
“Pete Carroll has pounded the table about [how] he wants to win right now. This is not something he’s trying to build up to a three, four-year deal before they have a chance to win. He wants to win now. And if that’s what you’re trying to do, Jakobi Meyers is your best option,” Myers said on the Locked on Raiders podcast.
“The only way I could see a trade happening is if John Spytek and Pete Carroll aren’t on the same page,” Myers continued. “They’ve been on the same page from what I know since they joined the team together back in January. As far as I’m concerned, they’ve been in lockstep with each other.”
“Obviously, I’m not in the room. I’m not hearing the conversations. I don’t know that, but we haven’t heard any rumblings that they’re not on the same page and that they both share the same plans and the same ideologies. And again, Pete Carroll has come out many times and said, ‘I’m ready to win right now.’ So if they’re not on the same page, if they’re not seeing eye to eye in the expectations for 2025 and how they’re going to get to becoming a winning organization, that’s the way I could see a trade happening.”
x: @raidersbeat
I think it’s pretty obvious that Carroll and Kelly just didn’t believe that Bech or any of the other younger players on the roster were going to be good enough at the roles they needed them to play. And if the Myers situation isn’t resolved soon, they probably needed another guy anyway. Cooper has generally been really good, the price is right, so why not?
Of course, the win now approach is slightly insane coming off a 4-13 season, but Mark Davis has never run the Raiders in a sane or rational way.
Wasted money by a team/owner with more money than sense.