Rizzla breaks down the exciting news of Amari Cooper being traded to the Dallas Cowboys and analyzes the fantasy context for all players affected by the deal.
Welcome to Jerry’s world.
Jon Gruden and the Oakland Raiders were somehow able to find a taker for Amari Cooper for their desired first round pick price tag, and it was no other then Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys.
Cowboys traded a first-round pick to Raiders for WR Amari Cooper, per source.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 22, 2018
Now while I am still a little miffed at how the Cowboys handled the releases of Tony Romo and Dez Bryant, if you exclude the price tag, this is a very strong move for the Dallas Cowboys. Dak Prescott has continued to struggle with no end in sight due to his barren receiver corps but now gets a serious upgrade with 24 year old Amari Cooper.
Amari has been wildly inconsistent himself and aside from a great two weeks this season has failed miserably in Greg Olson’s offensive scheme. Now whether a gun shy Derek Carr or the play calling is to blame is a rant for another day, the move to Dallas is a much needed one for all parties involved.
In Dallas the Cowboys now sport a solid, if unspectacular wide receiver corps that could trot out Amari Cooper on the outside with Cole Beasley in the slot and either Michael Gallup or Allen Hurns in three wide sets. A Cooper-Gallup one two combo is actually something Cowboys fans could and should get excited about. With that said their best trio would consist of Allen Hurns and Michael Gallup on the outside with Amari Cooper in the slot but predicting what Scott Linehan will do in Jerry’s world is a fool’s errand to be sure.
In Oakland the Raiders have now given up on their biggest talents on both sides of the ball, and if you want to be fair, created a lot of cap space and first round pick excitement in the process. The Raiders will now roll with Jordy Nelson and Martavis Bryant as their top two receivers with Seth Roberts in the slot. While some have speculated the Raiders may sign Dez Bryant to shore up the position, no one can be certain a power hungry coach would even entertain adding a truly mercurial wideout to the mix with Derek Carr’s temperament being an potential issue.
Fantasy Context:
Amari Cooper gets a new lease on life in Dallas. He goes from one bad team to another one but the Cowboys are a much better team on both sides of the ball and the presence of Ezekiel Elliott as a dual backfield threat will undoubtedly help Cooper coverage wise. Amari remains a upside WR2 type as he has shown his floor one too many times this season to make a major move up our rest of season rankings. Luckily for Cooper he has the skill set to thrive in Scott Linehan’s offense as generating yards after the catch is placed at a premium in the scheme and Cooper, despite his struggles this season, remains one of the best in the NFL in that department (15th in NFL, 17th last season). Two bye weeks may frustrate fantasy owners but Cooper needed a week to get acclimated to the Cowboys playbook so this may be a blessing in disguise for the talented wideout. As far as dynasty leagues are concerned this is a huge move as the Jon Gruden regime was not one in which Cooper was going to flourish. Only six months older than impressive rookie and Alabama alum Calvin Ridley, Amari Cooper remains a WR1 type for dynasty league purposes due to his proven NFL upside.
Jordy Nelson takes over as the number one receiver in Oakland and looks like a borderline WR2 for the rest of the season. Nelson has been quite impressive in Oakland this season and has made the most of his targets to the tune of 2.33 fantasy points per, a mark that places him 14th among wide receivers. Nelson’s impact on the Raiders offense via his 30.5 percent dominator rating (13th among receivers) accentuates the large role Nelson has played despite being tied for third on the team in both targets and receptions. Nelson should be a sneaky DFS play this week and should provide bountiful returns for fantasy managers who have him on their redraft rosters. Exciting times to be sure if you are one of them.
Martavis Bryant, while still under indefinite suspension watch, immediately ascends to the number two receiver role in Oakland and should be one of the top FAAB bids this week in the 96 percent of yahoo leagues he is available in. Bryant’s talent has never been in question in the fantasy community so this serves as gargantuan news for wide receiver needy teams with FAAB dollars to spend. Bryant should step up as a flex/flex2 option but with weekly WR1 upside. His floor keeps him in flex territory but he is a 100 yard receiving and a touchdown threat weekly, especially in a Greg Olson offense that has already displayed they know how and where to use him, albeit on a limited basis. Add Bryant wherever possible in redraft and even dynasty leagues while taking a long, hard look at him in DFS contests this week due to his expanded role on offense.
Seth Roberts is not fantasy relevant outside of the ocean deepest of leagues but is definitely worth a gander in those formats.
Derek Carr loses some of his limited upside with this news as he can no longer boast one of the most talented wide receivers trios in the NFL. If that was not enough star running back Marshawn Lynch is due to be out for at least a month as he recovers from a groin injury (update: has now been placed on IR). Carr has not been very impressive this season as despite averaging career highs in both passing yards and yards per attempt he has thrown just seven touchdowns in six games to eight interceptions. There of course is time for Carr to turn it all around in terms of that ratio, but subtracting talent from your wide receiver corps is not the way to go about it. Derek Carr remains a bye week filler with QB2 upside until further notice.
Michael Gallup, depending on who the Cowboys decide to start beside Amari Cooper and Cole Beasley, could be the big loser of this trade. While Gallup’s role has increased over recent weeks it has not however come at the expense of Allen Hurns leaving some uncertainty here as far as Gallup’s redraft stock goes. As for Gallup’s dynasty value I would argue that this is actually a boost for his value as he will likely have much more success dealing with the easier coverages afforded a number two receiver as opposed to a number one. Gallup is still a solid hot pickup this week, but as echoed here temper your FAAB bids in the wake of this news.
Cole Beasley and Allen Hurns are still on the fringes of fantasy value outside of the deepest of leagues but if one of these two were to take a hit with this news we are projecting it to be Hurns, who will continue to be pushed by rookie Michael Gallup. Hurns remains nothing more than a ocean deep league bye week filler while Beasley, who should, as a Garrett guy, retain his slot role, remains a solid bye week filler in PPR leagues.
Ezekiel Elliott is the big winner of this trade. As echoed when we featured him in our FanDuel CPP values for week seven:
“As per our friends at playerprofiler Elliot is averaging an impressive 4.8 yards per carry against stacked fronts and 5.1 yards per carry against base fronts of which he faces 31.6 and 46.2 percent of the time respectively.”
Seeing base fronts or worse 78.8 percent of the time (updated number) is no way to make your living and belies the Cowboys ineptitude in the passing game aside from Zeke himself. Elliott at the very least can now expect the stacked front percentage to fall with a credible threat for opposing defenses to deal with in the passing game. Ezekiel Elliott remains one of the absolute best running backs both in real life and in fantasy and looks to have been gifted more runway with Amari Cooper coming to town. Zeke arguably remains a top five option week in and week out and fantasy owners should be toasting Jon Gruden for his bewildering personnel moves.
Dak Prescott gets a huge value boost with this news. It has been an entirely forgettable two years since his impressive rookie season and now that Dak once again has a top receiver good things should be on the horizon. Dak still looks away from his top target too often but the presence of Cooper on the field will open things up for the rest of the offense, including Zeke and Prescott as running options out of the backfield. Dak remains a QB2 but now can boast solid streamer appeal starting in week ten versus the Eagles.
