BEREA, Ohio — Pro Bowl wide receiver Amari Cooper has skipped the first two days of the Cleveland Browns’ mandatory minicamp. Coach Kevin Stefanski said Cooper’s absence is not excused, subjecting him to fines, and it leaves only one explanation for the receiver not being present: Cooper wants a raise as part of a new contract.
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Though Cooper has not spoken publicly about the matter and Stefanski acknowledged there’s been “dialogue” between the team and Cooper’s representation, this is a holdout. Cooper should believe he has at least some leverage, and his ultimate goal figures to be a new, multiyear deal in line with some of the others that No. 1 wideouts across the league have received in recent months.
Cooper turns 30 on Monday. He’s due to make a base salary of $20 million in the final year of his current contract, as the Browns enter a season of high urgency and high expectations. Cooper feels he deserves more money and long-term security ahead of his 10th NFL season and third with the Browns.
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Acquiring Cooper for a third-day pick and a third-day pick swap in 2022 was a no-brainer for Cleveland. The Dallas Cowboys then faced major salary-cap issues, and the Browns made the trade to ensure they’d get Cooper on their roster. The team and Cooper then agreed to a new contract for three seasons, the final two of which would see Cooper play at a salary-cap number of around $23.7 million.
Cooper has certainly outplayed the trade price in his first two seasons with the Browns, and his overall production combined with the team’s inability to find a true No. 2 receiver as Cooper’s running mate make him a candidate for a raise. But he’s dealt with December injuries in each of his two seasons in Cleveland, and it would be perfectly understandable for a team that’s already spending massively to hesitate to commit top-of-the-market money to a wide receiver entering his 30s.
Though it’s only June and chances are the sides can find a resolution in the coming weeks, this is the kind of first-world problem the Browns have rarely encountered in recent years. The Browns need Cooper, and Cooper knows that. Cooper also knows the Browns have paid multiple players they consider vital — pretty much everyone, actually — to the team’s present and future. Cooper wants it to be his turn.
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Following the wave of new contracts for wide receivers — mostly younger players getting their second deals — in recent months, Cooper’s average of $20 million per year stands 20th at the position leaguewide. He would have to get to $24 million to crack the top 10.
If it was as simple as the Browns throwing a few extra million at Cooper for this year, that could probably be accomplished quickly. Per the NFL Players Association’s public salary-cap report, the Browns have about $14.1 million in free space for 2024. But Cooper probably wants more years and more money. His desire for a longer commitment probably grew when Cleveland gave wide receiver Jerry Jeudy a two-year extension in March shortly after acquiring the wideout in a trade for two third-day draft picks.
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The Browns think they’re beating the long-term market with Jeudy’s deal that included about $28 million in new guarantees, and maybe they will. But Cooper has produced an average of 75 catches and 1,200 yards for the Browns over two seasons. Jeudy never came close to putting up those numbers in his four seasons in Denver. The Browns believe Jeudy will add speed and playmaking to a pass-catching group that’s headlined by two Pro Bowlers, Cooper and tight end David Njoku.
Cooper is probably thinking more about what other No. 1 receivers around the league have been paid and his importance to the team. Jeudy, Elijah Moore, second-year wide receiver Cedric Tillman and third-year receiver David Bell are largely unproven players by any standard, but especially by the standard Cooper has set over a career that includes five Pro Bowl selections and seven 1,000-yard seasons.
Cooper can also point to the Browns’ recent history of paying some of their most experienced players in this win-now window. The team has recently extended and restructured the contracts of Pro Bowl guards Joel Bitonio (32) and Wyatt Teller (30 in November). In March, the Browns signed edge rusher Za’Darius Smith (32 in September) to a new two-year contract that includes $12 million in guarantees a year after they acquired him in a May 2023 trade.
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What is Cooper looking for? Again, we don’t know for sure because he’s been away from the team’s offseason program. But Calvin Ridley, who turns 30 in December, got $50 million guaranteed from the Tennessee Titans in March at an average of $23 million per year. Mike Evans, who will be 31 in August, got $35 million guaranteed on a new two-year deal worth up to $41 million that kept him in Tampa Bay. Soon-to-be 25-year-old Justin Jefferson just got $110 million guaranteed from the Minnesota Vikings to reset the top of the wide receiver market, and Cooper wouldn’t get anywhere near that. But Davante Adams was entering his age-30 season when he got almost $67 million guaranteed and an annual average value of $28 million from the Las Vegas Raiders in 2022.
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Cleveland could lower Cooper’s 2024 cap number of $23.7 million in an extension, but the issue would potentially be in future seasons. The Browns currently have eight players set to count at least $19 million on the team’s 2025 cap. Even with the cap expected to again rise from the 2024 number of $255 million, the Browns have almost $305 million in cap liabilities for 2025, according to Over the Cap.
Eventually, the Browns will use restructures, and probably some roster deletions, to lower their 2025 commitments in the coming months. They haven’t restructured Deshaun Watson’s 2024 cap number of a record $63.9 million for 2024, but the team has the right to do so (and can do the same in future seasons). As the Browns have shown in recent years, there are many ways the team can create space and push money forward. As part of the new contract they structured for Cooper in 2022, he accounts for around $11 million in dead money on the salary cap this season and $7.5 million in 2025.
The Browns obviously want Cooper to have another big season. The team would almost certainly love to have him producing the way he has for years into the future. But paying for past production is tricky, and Cleveland’s big spending to become a playoff team will lead to more big spending in trying to maintain it. If Cooper was, say, 27, he’d probably be in line for a top-of-the-market contract. But just before he turns 30, Cooper knows the Browns need him to deliver. And he’s trying to get a nice raise before he returns to work.
(Photo: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
