Buy or Sell: Oakland Raiders vs. San Diego Chargers

Maybe Amari Cooper will have a breakout year after all.

Buy.

Cooper racked up 137 yards on 6 catches to start 2016, and Raider Nation thought the big breakout season was underway.

But then his receiving yards total dipped each week — 71, to 62, and then to 48. And he didn’t have a touchdown reception, and he also had a few bad drops.

Panic crept in, and one of the more notable questions/concerns after Week 4 was whether or not fans should be worried about Cooper. Especially with how well Crabtree was playing (and the offense in general), it seemed like there was really no good reason why Amari’s numbers shouldn’t have been better.

And then Week 5 happened.

Amari had nearly an identical game as he did in Week 1, with the same amount of catches and only one extra yard, but he scored his first touchdown of the year.

Not only that, but Cooper was also close to a much, much bigger game. He missed one touchdown by the length of his left toes, and he missed another touchdown thanks to a confusing rule about having to re-establish himself in-bounds after a pass interference penalty.

There was one other near-catch where he was ruled out of bounds. So if not for a few inches, Cooper could have had something like 9 catches for 175 yards and 3 TDs.

“What if” is a weak argument, admittedly, but the point is that it shows what Cooper is capable of, and how close he was to having a huge game.

I’ll end this with one a few finals stats — even though Cooper has been relatively “quiet” for the majority of the season, he is fifth in the league in receiving yards, with 456. He’s now averaging 91.2 yards per game, and his 9 receptions of 20 or more yards is tied for second in the NFL.

Breakout season.