The Cleveland Browns have agreed to a trade for WR Amari Cooper from the Dallas Cowboys. Cooper has been highly productive in his eight years in the league and is still just 28 years old.
As noted in the trade article, Cooper has caught over 500 balls in his eight years in the league amassing over 7,000 yards receiving and 46 touchdowns. Last year, he had 68 receptions for 865 yards and eight touchdowns as CeeDee Lamb took over as the team’s top target.
Another highly productive receiver, Jarvis Landry, may be impacted most by the Cooper trade. Already this offseason, Landry has spoken out on social media about his desires. Cleveland has options with his contract going into the final season of his five-year deal.
It is possible Landry spoke out to try to avoid the delayed-release that happened to Sheldon Richardson last year.
Landry, like Cooper, has been in the league for eight seasons. He has caught 688 passes for over 7,500 yards with 37 touchdowns. Landry has been the model of consistency but lacked the big plays that Cooper has put up during his career.
With the Browns taking on a $20 million salary-cap hit with Cooper, Landry’s $16 million will be hard to keep around. Cleveland’s Andrew Berry could approach Landry’s side about a restructured deal or extension to bring his salary cap number down but that is unlikely.
Cooper’s deal is also team friendly with no guaranteed money in the future. He can be cut after each of the next two seasons with zero dead cap hit to the team if things go wrong.
Instead, expect the Browns to release Landry in the near future unless another team is willing to trade a low draft pick to acquire him.