When he signed a 5-year, $100 million contract extension with the Dallas Cowboys in 2020, it looked as though wide receiver Amari Cooper was going to be in Big D for the foreseeable future. So it came as a surprise when Cooper was traded to the Cleveland Browns, where he comes in with the expectation of being the No. 1 receiver.
Below we look at Amari Cooper‘s 2022 fantasy football average draft position (ADP) and where you should draft him.
With a new beginning in Cleveland and the eventual return of QB Deshaun Watson — a quarterback capable of posting huge passing numbers — Cooper could become a consistent fantasy football starter despite not being in that category yet.
Amari Cooper’s ADP: 66.09
(ADP data courtesy of MyFantasyLeague.com; last updated at time of this publishing – ADPs continually change as more drafts occur)
For the 1st time in his career, Cooper is viewed as a mid-round fantasy receiver and a WR3, which is something to note. Those who are drafting Cooper aren’t counting on him to be a weekly starter in their fantasy lineups.
Cooper finds himself slotted in among primarily No. 2 receivers or those with a lot of offensive questions. His ADP falls behind Adam Thielen (Minnesota Vikings) at 64.88 and Chris Godwin (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) at 65.86 and slightly ahead of Marquise Brown (Arizona Cardinals) at 68.74 and Darnell Mooney (Chicago Bears) at 69.61.
With such a tight clustering of picks, it seems clear that the 7th round of fantasy drafts is going to include a lot of wide receivers.
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Amari Cooper’s 2021 stats
Games: 15
Receptions | targets: 68 | 104
Receiving yards: 865
Receiving touchdowns: 8
Where should you draft Cooper?
I’ve never been a big fan of Cooper as a fantasy player. It seemed like so much of his production was the result of 3 or 4 huge games surrounded by a half-dozen pedestrian games and 3 or 4 games with almost nothing.
However, that was when Cooper was being drafted as a WR1 or WR2. In his current ADP positioning (WR28) it puts him a low-end WR3 in 10-player leagues and mid-WR3 in 12-player leagues.
In 7 NFL seasons, Cooper has averaged 74 catches for 1,011 yards and 7 touchdowns. His durability has never been questioned — he’s missed only 4 games in 7 years. Those annual numbers as a presumptive fantasy starter are too low. For a plug-and-play WR3, those are outstanding. Thielen has a “red zone” rapport that makes him hard to jump and, if Godwin comes back 100 percent, he’s hard to move over either.
At this position, if Cooper is still on the board when you’re looking for a WR3, jump on him. For the 1st time in a long time he’s a value pick.
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