Raiders wide receiver Amari Cooper took a step back in 2017, but his new head coach believes in him and has big plans for him.
“We need him to be the player he was the first two years,” Jon Gruden told reporters recently. “I’ve said it earlier, we’re going to make him the main vein of our passing offense and move him around a lot. … We’re really excited about him. I think he’s entering the prime of his career.”
Cooper, the former Alabama All-America who is just 23, had 72 catches for 1,070 yards as a rookie in 2015 and 83 receptions for 1,153 in 2016 before slumping to 48 catches for 680 yards in 2017. There were reports Cooper may have been injured more than the team announced. Others have said Cooper took a step back because the game plans weren’t tailored to use him as well as they had been set up in his first two years in Oakland, or that his numbers were the result of quarterback Derek Carr’s troubles.
No matter what happened last season, though, Gruden believes Cooper can regain his status as a top wideout in the NFL in 2018.
“I said it when he came out of Alabama, that he reminded me of a young Tim Brown,” Gruden said of the former Raiders Hall of Famer. “He has that type of game speed. He’s elusive and has a wide range of routes he can run. He’s flexible. It’ll benefit him to stay healthy and stay in the same system for a few years. If he does that, great things are ahead.”
Brown, in fact, said earlier this off-season that he believes Cooper will thrive in Gruden’s offense and could have as many as “120 to 125 catches a year without any problem.”
