#89: WR Bryan Edwards – WR Amari Cooper
The name Amari Cooper sparks some visceral reactions among members of Raider Nation due to his attitude and perceived lack of competitive fire. Cooper was traded to the Dallas Cowboys after three and a half seasons as part of Jon Gruden’s rebuild but his first two years in Oakland were truly special.
In his rookie season despite major problems with dropped passes, Cooper became the first Raiders rookie receiver to reach 1,000 yards and the first since Randy Moss did it 10 years earlier in 2005.
He followed it up with an even better sophomore season to earn his second Pro Bowl nod and Raider Nation thought we had another special WR in the tradition of Tim Brown or Fred Biletnikoff. Unfortunately, both Cooper and the Raiders offense regressed in 2017 and questions about his competitiveness began to arise.
He was unceremoniously shipped off to Dallas during the Raiders terrible 2018 season and has done well but the same issues of drops and attitude have followed him there.
Now what about Bryan Edwards? The former South Carolina Gamecock comes to the Raiders much less heralded than Cooper because of his status as a third round pick versus top-five but expectations are high. He is a big, physical receiver that is not as agile as Cooper and has had issues with drops during his college career.
Still, most fans are already willing to forget that Cooper ever played for the Raiders after his perceived lack of desire to be in Oakland so Edwards will just have to be productive and stick around for a while to take over as the best 89 in Raiders history.