After the injury to wide receiver Rashee Rice, the Kansas City Chiefs may just call the Cleveland Browns for Amari Cooper after the team dropped to 1-3 on the season.
And it’s not out of the question that the Browns would strike a deal to send him to the back-to-back Super Bowl champs. The Chiefs boast an already weak room before the injury to Rice, and now it has gotten even weaker.
An established veteran who has been traded twice before already may just be the perfect fit for Patrick Mahomes and company. FOX Sports’ Peter Schrager floated the idea.
Why would the Browns trade Amari Cooper?
A slow start has consumed Cooper this season. Despite a breakout performance against the New York Giants last week where he caught his first touchdown pass of the season, Cooper had another costly drop for the third time in four weeks. This one led to an interception on a throw that should have resulted in a chunk play from the arm of quarterback Deshaun Watson.
If the Browns continue to lose, already at a crossroads of 1-3 on the season with the red-hot Washington Commanders up next, we could see them start to ship off veteran assets nearing the end of their contracts in Cleveland.
If the player is going to walk in free agency after the season’s end anyway, why not at least get a draft asset back for him on the trade market before we get to that point?
And Cooper is the leading candidate.
What are the financial implications of trading Cooper?
Cooper is in the last year of his deal. The Browns have already restructured his deal to give him his money guaranteed and in the form of a bonus. This means his cap hit is at the veteran minimum this season for another team to take on.
This makes him an attractive target for other teams.
To do so, the Browns would save whatever is left on the base contract of Cooper this season. If traded today, that number would be $941,111. If he is traded at the deadline that number would be $605,000.
The Browns would, however, eat all of the bonuses they have already prorated out to Cooper. This means the Browns would have a cap hit of $22.6 million in 2025 to trade the wide receiver.
The big difference is if the Browns just let him walk, designating him as a post-June 1 cut (which they can do because of the void years), then they would save $15 million against the cap next year and eat just $7.5 million in dead cap.
So, the asset the Browns get in return will dictate whether or not they trade Cooper. Is a fourth round pick worth an additional $15 million in dead cap? Probably not. But would a second rounder in some sort of pick swap? Perhaps.
The only way to avoid this cap hit is to extend the player further into the future, which is something the Browns were unwilling to do during the wideout’s holdout this summer. Looking at the production they are getting from Cooper at this point as well, that may have been the right call.
Now to the final question: what kind of return would Cooper warrant?
What could the Browns get out of Cooper on the trade market?
The timing here is key. If the Browns wait until the trade deadline to trade Cooper, then likely a fourth round pick is all they would be able to retain for a player who is basically a rental for half of a season for his new team.
However, if the Chiefs or another team comes and gets Cooper by giving the Browns an offer they cannot refuse out of desperation for the wide receiver, we could see returns as high as a second round pick. General manager Andrew Berry has been fond of pick swaps as well, so seeing Cooper packaged with an early Day 3 pick for a second round pick would not be out of the question.