The Dallas Cowboys made sure not to let Dak Prescott’s top target leave, inking Amari Cooper to a six-figure contract.
Jerry Jones made it clear early on that he wanted to do whatever it took to retain Amari Cooper in free agency. The Dallas Cowboys had to sweat a little by using the franchise tag on Dak Prescott, making Cooper a true free agent, but in the end they ponied up to keep their top pass catcher.
Cooper will receive a five-year, $100 million deal from Dallas to keep snagging passes from Prescott. The Cowboys’ offense reached another level once they traded for Cooper in the middle of the 2018 season, and there was simply no way they could replace him given the poor wide receiver class on the free agent market.
This deal makes a lot of sense because Cooper has said from the start that he wanted to stay with Dallas, and Jones made sure to give Cooper an offer he couldn’t refuse.
Contract Details
Cooper’s five year deal contains approximately $60 million in guaranteed money, which is so far the most given to a free agent in this class. Given how much Jones has made it a priority to keep his players happy, it makes sense that Cooper was wrangle some extra cash out of the Cowboys.
National Reaction
Amari Cooper intends to re-sign with the Dallas Cowboys on a 5-year, $100 million deal, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 17, 2020
Cowboys WR Amari Cooper turned down “significantly” more money from Redskins to remain in Dallas with hopes to win Super Bowl here, source said tonight. Dallas is where he wanted to be. He’s coming back on a five-year, $100 million contract.
— Michael Gehlken (@GehlkenNFL) March 17, 2020
The deal for Amari Cooper includes $60M guaranteed. https://t.co/jbRilmb8jQ
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 17, 2020
Amari Cooper when he was asked last year if he could imagine playing with a 41-year-old Tom Brady: “No. I don’t want to play with Tom Brady. I want to beat Tom Brady. I want to play with Dak Prescott. And I believe that we can get the job done.”
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) March 17, 2020
Sure looks like a happy reaction to the Amari Cooper contract news.https://t.co/RCEDTl4Aua
— Brad Biggs (@BradBiggs) March 17, 2020
The interesting development here is that the Washington Redskins made a huge push to steal Cooper away from the Cowboys. Adding Cooper would be a big boost for the development of Dwayne Haskins, but Cooper opted to leave a lot of money on the table in order to stay in Dallas.
That is a positive sign for the Cowboys, who have two of their three triplets locked up long term and need to get to work on finding a deal for Prescott. Considering some of the other funny money that has been thrown around today, $60 million guaranteed for Cooper seems pretty reasonable.