Making the Case Not to Draft Amari Cooper

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In the fantasy community, there are some players that half of the community loves, while the other half doesn’t think they’re worth the talk they receive. The biggest name in that situation is Dallas Cowboys’ wide receiver, Amari Cooper. There are many reasons why people think he is one of the most overrated fantasy receivers in the league today which will be talked about today. Cooper’s ADP is currently the 33rd overall player selected as the WR13.

Last year, he was the WR10 on possibly the league’s most explosive offense with the Cowboys. Michael Gallup was also the WR22 for Dallas last year. While that is great and all, Cooper is the hottest and coldest player in all of fantasy sports. Below is a chart of Cooper’s games last year and his finish in those games:

Cooper had eight weeks last year when he was a top 24 receiver. He also had two weeks as a WR3 and five weeks where he wasn’t even a top-36 receiver. That means that some weeks he could be leading your team to a victory, while in others he was the reason you lost. Consistency is one of the biggest keys in fantasy football, and Cooper isn’t as consistent as many players would like him to be. From weeks 1-10 he was the WR3 in the league while from weeks 11-17, he was the WR43. 

Despite finishing as the WR10, Cooper should’ve been much lower and his best games vastly improved his finish last year. He only had ten more targets than Gallup despite playing two more games. Cooper had .2 more fantasy points per game last year than Gallup, but those three big games skewed his averages. Gallup is getting all the hype this training camp from the new coach, Mike McCarthy, not Cooper.

The Cowboys have 190 vacated targets from last year’s aerial attack with the losses of Randall Cobb, Jason Witten, and Tavon Austin. Dak Prescott threw 596 passes which were sixth-most in the league. Kellen Moore‘s offensive scheme made the passing attack more lethal and more a necessity last year. Even if the Cowboys were to throw anywhere close to as many passes as they did last year, Cooper won’t have the same production he did last year when he finished as the WR10. Cobb and Witten’s departures would be great for Cooper, if only they hadn’t selected CeeDee Lamb in the first round and had the breakout of Blake Jarwin potentially on the horizon.

Gallup alone is enough to put some fright into taking Cooper as early as he is being taken currently. Add in the fact that the Cowboys have a third receiver that’s likely to get 100 targets in Lamb. To make matters worse, Ezekiel Elliot had 54 catches last year. Elliot will at best be the fourth option, battling with Jarwin for that role. Prescott will have plenty of options to go to and won’t be forcing targets to Cooper. It is anyone’s guess who will have the great week in the Dallas passing attack on a week-to-week basis.

If you’re willing to risk Cooper’s ups and downs throughout the season, go for it. If your team needs an enormous week from one player, Cooper is your guy. However, if a team is balanced and needs each player to have solid weeks and one player could potentially ruin that for that team, Cooper shouldn’t be selected on that team. It depends on how each team and fantasy player would like their team to be, but for my teams, I’m staying away from Cooper. The Cooper situation is similar to that situation DeAndre Hopkins is currently in for the Arizona Cardinals as the number one option in an explosive offense isn’t as valuable as it may seem.

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