The Chiefs lost WR Marquise Brown to injury before the 2024 season even started, and they may be without top wideout Rashee Rice for the rest of the year as well. The club could therefore be inclined to acquire a receiver prior to the November 5 trade deadline, and the Browns’ Amari Cooper was recently floated as a possibility for the defending Super Bowl champions.
However, Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com says the Browns are not going to trade Cooper, either to Kansas City or to any other club. Cleveland’s 1-3 start to the season and the struggles of quarterback Deshaun Watson have led to speculation that the team could be a deadline seller, and since Cooper is a pending free agent, he profiles as a logical trade candidate.
That is especially true given Cooper’s slow start to the 2024 campaign; through four games, he has just 16 catches for 148 yards and two scores, and both of his touchdowns and over half of his yardage came in a Week 3 loss to the Giants. That said, Watson is still heavily targeting Cooper, who had what would have been an 82-yard touchdown nullified by a questionable holding penalty in the Browns’ Week 4 loss to the Raiders. The five-time Pro Bowler has been targeted 37 times, and the Browns continue to hope that such volume will eventually translate to the high-end production that Cooper is capable of.
Plus, the Browns and Cooper agreed to a July restructure that saw most of the player’s base salary converted into a signing bonus and two void years added to his deal for cap purposes, and Cabot says there is “no way” Cleveland will absorb the dead money charge that a trade would create. Any trade partner would have to take on some of the bonus money that is still owed to Cooper, and at this point in the calendar, when many teams have limited cap space, that could prove to be a challenge.
Even if the Browns turn their season around to the point that they become deadline buyers, Cabot does not expect them to be in the market for some of the names that have popped up in early trade rumors, such as Davante Adams and DeAndre Hopkins. Although Cleveland was reportedly willing to trade Cooper for the 26-year-old Brandon Aiyuk this offseason, the team is not believed to be anxious to acquire a high-priced, thirty-something wideout.
Cooper, who is naturally anxious to capitalize on the exploding receiver market in the upcoming offseason, has been practicing with “renewed intensity” over the past several weeks, according to Cabot.
I wonder if Browns are still open to the Aiyuk trade. Dude has looked horrible since the extension.
Emergence of Jennings. Deebo. 1st round pick on Pearsall. 49ers should look to unload Aiyuks contract.
Pretty sure looking at the complete dumpster fire the brownies are, they are not gonna be buyers at the trade deadline. (Aka they are gonna need those draft picks….and someone to take the worst contract ever given in the history of the franchise)
Apparently the Niners paid Aiyuk to just breathe
Mary Kay knows all, sees all……and is wrong most of the time.
You aren’t at all wrong. My mom lives in the Cleveland area and there are some very good sports writers and pundits there (Pluto and Hoynes for sure) but Mary Kay is not one of them. She sure thinks she is, though.