{"id":63759,"date":"2025-03-23T10:55:31","date_gmt":"2025-03-23T14:55:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/?p=63759"},"modified":"2025-03-23T10:43:32","modified_gmt":"2025-03-23T14:43:32","slug":"should-the-saints-go-after-amari-cooper-probably-not-and-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/should-the-saints-go-after-amari-cooper-probably-not-and-heres-why\/63759\/","title":{"rendered":"Should the Saints go after Amari Cooper? Probably not, and Here\u2019s why"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Heading into the 2025 offseason, the New Orleans Saints<\/strong> knew they needed to bolster their wide receiver group. Their situation wasn\u2019t ideal\u2014Marquez Valdes-Scantling<\/strong> left for the Seattle Seahawks<\/strong>, and their top wideout, Chris Olave<\/strong>, has struggled with injuries throughout his career.<\/p>\n

To address this, the Saints brought in Brandin Cooks<\/strong>, a familiar face with plenty of speed. But some analysts, including Pro Football Focus\u2019 Zoltan Buday<\/strong>, believe New Orleans should make another move\u2014this time for veteran receiver Amari Cooper<\/strong>, who most recently played for the Buffalo Bills<\/strong> and Cleveland Browns<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Would Cooper be a good fit?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

On paper, adding Cooper seems logical. The Saints lack depth at receiver, and Cooper has proven he can be a reliable target. However, his performance last season was underwhelming\u2014he finished with a 68.7 PFF grade<\/strong>, ranking just 61st among 133 wide receivers<\/strong>. That\u2019s a significant drop-off from his previous two seasons, when he was a top-20 receiver<\/strong> by PFF standards.<\/p>\n

Despite his struggles in 2024, there are valid reasons why Cooper didn\u2019t thrive. The Browns had a disastrous quarterback situation<\/strong>, with Deshaun Watson<\/strong> underperforming before suffering a season-ending injury. Then, after being traded to Buffalo at the deadline, Cooper never fully clicked<\/strong> with Josh Allen and the Bills\u2019 offense.<\/p>\n

Why the Saints are unlikely to sign cooper<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Even though the Saints could<\/strong> use more receiver depth, signing Cooper doesn\u2019t seem likely for several reasons:<\/p>\n

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  1. \n

    They Just Signed Brandin Cooks<\/strong> \u2013 With Cooks, Olave, and Rashid Shaheed<\/strong> already in the mix, the Saints have their top three receivers set. While they could add another depth piece, it\u2019s unlikely they\u2019d invest heavily in Cooper.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    Cooper Wants a Bigger Role<\/strong> \u2013 At this stage of his career, Cooper likely wants to be a featured receiver, not just another option in a crowded room. The Saints can\u2019t offer him that.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    Cap Space & Financial Priorities<\/strong> \u2013 Cooper won\u2019t come cheap, and the Saints need to be mindful of their salary cap situation. They have other roster needs to address before splurging on another receiver.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    While adding a proven veteran like Cooper sounds good in theory, the reality is that he\u2019s not a fit for the Saints right now<\/strong>. They\u2019ve already filled their biggest need at receiver, and unless they want to shake things up even more, spending big on Cooper doesn\u2019t make sense<\/strong>. He\u2019ll likely land with a team that can guarantee him a bigger role and a bigger paycheck<\/strong>\u2014and that team probably won\u2019t be in New Orleans.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Heading into the 2025 offseason, the New Orleans Saints knew they needed to bolster their wide receiver group. Their situation\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":294,"featured_media":63760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[24894],"class_list":["post-63759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-amari-cooper"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/294"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}