The Dallas Cowboys now have four members of the NFL’s top 100, with 48 slots remaining.
Wideout Amari Cooper joins LB Jaylon Smith (No. 88), LT Tyron Smith (No. 76) and RG Zack Martin (No. 55) as the members of the 2019 team who have been honored by their peers so far.
COOOOOP lands a spot at No. 49❕ #NFLTop100 | @amaricooper9 | #DallasCowboys pic.twitter.com/HZutRTFoRh
— Dallas Cowboys (@dallascowboys) July 28, 2020
Cooper had an extraordinary start to the 2019 season that would’ve ended up ranking him higher if not for his fade down the stretch.
Player through a myriad of lower-body injuries, Cooper put together the best season of his five-year career, amassing career bests with 1,189 receiving yards and eight touchdowns. He started all 16 games for the first time in his career.
Cooper had four 100-plus receiving yard games in the first nine contests of the season, including a dazzling 226-yard performance in Week 5 against the Green Bay Packers. A rainy-day game against the New England Patriots was the low point when he was held without a catch on two targets. Cooper never surpassed 90 yards in a game down the stretch of the season as Dallas finished 8-8 and out of the playoffs.
The season highlighted a weird trend for Cooper that sees a big discrepancy in his performance in front of the home crowd and on the road.
Related: Amari Cooper has the road yips, and it’s not something new
Even with the road woes, though, Cooper is one of the league’s preeminent talents at the position. The Cowboys, who traded their 2019 first-round pick in the middle of the 2018 campaign to acquire him, signed him to a five-year, $100 million deal this past offseason to ward off the higher bidding Washington franchise.
Together with second-year receiver Michael Gallup they formed one of the leagues 1,000-yard receiving duos. This past offseason, Dallas drafted Oklahoma’s CeeDee Lamb to join the team and take the offense to new heights under new head coach Mike McCarthy.
Cooper could see an improvement on the ranking made by his peers in 2020.
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