Amari Cooper faces a $50,000 a day fine if he doesn't report to training camp with other Browns veterans on Tuesday.
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
As the Browns embark to open training camp for the second year in a row at The Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia this week, the Amari Cooper contract situation should come to a head.
It is the most immediate pressing issue facing GM Andrew Berry at the start of a campaign the Browns hope will end with their first division title – and home playoff game -- of their expansion era. They haven’t finished first in their division since Bud Carson’s Browns limped to first with a 9-6-1 record in 1989.
Cooper protested his contract situation through the offseason. He skipped all the voluntary sessions and three days of mandatory minicamp, accruing a CBA-mandated fine total of $101,716.
The two sides have conducted non-acrimonious negotiations for months. And although they haven’t resulted yet in a deal, the talks have not devolved into public name-calling or, so far, a Cooper request to be traded.
The deadline for action is Tuesday. That’s when Browns veteran players are required to report to club headquarters in Berea prior to departing on Wednesday to The Greenbrier.
Cooper has three options:
1. Continue his holdout and not report to camp.
The Browns would have no recourse but to fine Cooper $50,000 a day, per the CBA, which states, “For the avoidance of doubt, any such fines shall be mandatory, and shall not be reduced in amount or waived by the Club, in whole or in part, but must be paid by the player or deducted by the Club as provided in Section 5(b) of this Article.”
2. Report to camp and continue working toward a new deal.
3. Report to camp and withhold from participating in any field work.
This “hold-in” strategy would avoid a daily fine but would continue his protest of his contract situation. The Browns are not scheduled to practice in pads until their sixth day in camp, per CBA “acclimation period” requirements.
Trying to get paid
Cooper is in the final year of a five-year contract the Browns inherited when they traded for him in 2022. His base salary is $20 million and his salary cap figure, due to previous, cap-to-bonus conversions is $23.776 million – second-highest on the team to Deshaun Watson’s $63.774 million.
The only thing heard from Cooper this offseason came in an interaction captured on camera that spread across the Internet. Cooper was challenged to a race in the 40-yard dash by a radio host and he responded, “I'd pull a hammy or something trying to race you. I’m trying to get paid this year.”
It’s understandable.
When Cooper signed his present contract with the Dallas Cowboys in March of 2020, his $20 million-a-year average ranked second in the NFL among receivers. Julius Jones at $22 million-a-year was first.
Three years later, Cooper’s $20 million has plummeted to 20th. The top five deals for receivers all have been inked in the past year, by Minnesota’s Justin Jefferson ($35 million-a-year), Philadelphia’s A.J. Brown ($32 million), Detroit’s Amon-Ra St. Brown ($30.002), Miami’s Tyreek Hill ($30 million), and Miami’s Jaylen Waddle ($28.25 million).
Not only has the wide receiver market skyrocketed, Cooper has seen the Browns hand out new contracts with guaranteed money to several of his teammates.
Since Cooper was acquired in trade in on March 16, 2022, the Browns have:
* Traded for Watson and signed him to a five-year contract for a fully guaranteed $230 million.
* Signed cornerback Denzel Ward to a five-year extension for $100.5 million with $44.5 million guaranteed.
* Signed tight end David Njoku to a four-year extension for $54.75 million with $28 million guaranteed.
* Signed right tackle Jack Conklin to a four-year extension for $60 million with $28.85 million guaranteed.
* Signed center Ethan Pocic to a three-year extension for $18 million with $10 million guaranteed.
* Picked up the fifth-year option of left tackle Jedrick Wills for a guaranteed $14.175 million.
* Signed safety Grant Delpit to a three-year extension for $36 million with $23.6 million guaranteed.
* Traded for receiver Jerry Jeudy and signed him to a three-year extension for $52.5 million with $41 million guaranteed.
* Picked up the fifth-year option of cornerback Greg Newsome for a guaranteed $13.3 million.
* Signed kicker Dustin Hopkins to a three-year extension for $15.3 million with a guaranteed $3.58 million.
The Browns also doled out millions of guaranteed money for free agents Dalvin Tomlinson, Za’Darius Smith, Juan Thornhill, Jameis Winston, Quinton Jefferson, Jordan Hicks, Nyheim Hines, Justin Hardee, D’Onta Foreman, Rodney McLeod, Maurice Hurst, Shelby Harris.
So, is Cooper justified for wanting “to get paid”?
Absolutely. He’s by far the Browns’ No. 1 receiver and the market has rendered him “underpaid.”
What’s Cooper’s market value?
Four of the five receivers at the top of the contract chart are younger than Cooper, who turned 30 on June 17. Jefferson is 25, Brown is 27, St. Brown is 24, and Waddle is 25. Hill is actually two months older than Cooper. He turned 30 in March.
So Cooper would be a little out of line to demand the $30 million-a-year range in a new contract. Moreover, the Browns would be inclined to favor a shorter-term deal as opposed to a 4- or 5-year contract.
It seems to me the most reasonable contract template for Cooper and the Browns to follow is the recent extension given to Mike Evans by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
In March, the Bucs signed Evans to a two-year contract for $52 million with $35 million guaranteed.
The overall careers of Evans and Cooper are very similar.
Evans, 31, was the No. 7 overall pick of Tampa Bay in 2014. Cooper, 30, was the No. 4 overall pick of Oakland in 2015.
Evans has produced 1,000-yard receiving seasons in each of his 10 years with Tampa Bay. Cooper had produced seven 1,000-yard receiving seasons in 10 years with Oakland, Dallas and Cleveland.
The last two seasons of these elite receivers are even more similar.
In 2022 and 2023, Evans played 32 games and had 156 receptions for 2,379 yards (15.25-yard average) and 19 touchdowns. He caught 59.3 percent of the passes targeted to him.
At the same time, Cooper played 32 games and 150 receptions for 2,410 yards (16.06-yard average) and 14 touchdowns. He caught 57.7 percent of the passes targeted to him.
My conclusion: Cooper and the Browns should arrive at a deal that guarantees Cooper at least $35 million over two seasons with incentives to reach $55 million or more.
The Browns should have been more proactive in getting Cooper under contract before they extended Jeudy’s deal. Even so, this doesn’t seem like an impasse that can’t be overcome to avoid a prolonged holdout situation.