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Cowboys Trading Amari Cooper To Cleveland
Amari Cooper is heading to Cleveland.

The Cowboys have agreed to a deal with the Browns that will see Cooper and a sixth-round pick go to Cleveland, and a fifth-round pick and sixth-round pick to Dallas.

As Profootballtalk.com's Michael David Smith suggests, that’s very little compensation for a player of Cooper’s caliber, but the reality is the Cowboys will be happy to get anything for him, as they were prepared to release him rather than pay his $20 million base salary this season.

The No. 4 pick of the 2015 draft by the Raiders, Cooper represented a $22 million cap hit for the Cowboys including the prorated signing bonus. But the Browns need a marquee receiver to jumpstart their anemic passing game.

In addition to Odell Beckham Jr. forcing his way out of town last season, No. 2 receiver Jarvis Landry sprained his knee in Week 2, missed four games and wasn’t the same when he returned. In 12 games he caught 52 passes for 570 yards and two touchdowns, all career lows.

The Browns are expected to cut Landry to save his $15 million salary in 2022 while taking only a $1.5 million hit to the salary cap. They have Donovan Peoples-Jones, Anthony Schwartz and Demetric Felton returning and would be expected to continue to add to the position, particularly in the draft.

Cooper played 15 games last season, catching 68 passes in 104 targets for 865 yards, a 12.7 average and eight touchdowns. He made the Pro Bowl in 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019.

It’s unclear whether Cooper and the Browns have agreed to any kind of restructured contract as part of the deal, but once the new league year starts on Wednesday and trades can become official, Cooper will have his new team and the Browns will have a receiver they hope can be a better fit in their offense than Beckham was.

According to Cleveland Plain Dealer beat writer Mary Kay Cabot, this move won't preclude the Browns from drafting a receiver such as Garrett Wilson at No. 13, but it would also give them some flexibility with that pick, including drafting a premier edge rusher or using it to trade for a veteran quarterback.

Although they’ve stated publicly and to Baker Mayfield’s agents that he’s their starter for 2022, they’ve had other quarterbacks on their radar such as the Raiders’ Derek Carr

They’ve also done their homework on Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson, but it’s unknown if they’d want to trade for him now that a grand jury decided Friday not to charge him with criminal sexual misconduct. Watson, who still faces civil suits from some of the numerous masseuses accusing him of misconduct, has a no-trade clause in his contract.

For the Cowboys, this makes it the already likely return of unrestricted free agent Michael Gallup even more likely. The team also applied the franchise tag to tight end Dalton Schultz and re-signed wideout Noah Brown. They're expected to do the same with Cedrick Wilson.

That group will work alongside No. 1 wideout CeeDee Lamb to provide Dak Prescott with a solid receiving corps with ample play-making ability.