Two weeks ago against the Lions, Amari Cooper reached a low point of his mostly stellar rookie season. He dropped two passes, adding to his already high drops total, which kept him second in the NFL in that category with ten drops on the season. He also had just one catch in the game on four targets -- his first time this season he caught fewer than four passes.
Not only was it a season low in catches, it was tied for a season low in targets. Jack Del Rio knows getting the ball to his team's top target was a high priority, so he made a point to do that Sunday against the Titans.
The result was Cooper's second most targets of the season (12) with his seven catches equaling his second most of the season, and his third most receiving yards in a game (115). That gave him 851 yards receiving on the season, and keeping him well in the lead for rookie receiving yards, 247 yards ahead of Stefon Diggs who is the closest competitor.
Cooper's overall season gives his coach confidence that his young receiver is more like the guy we saw this week than the week before.
"I think he's gonna have a lot of good games," said Jack Del Rio. "Certainly for us we clearly went into that game saying from a coaching standpoint we're gonna get him more involved, got him involved right away. Provided opportunities for him to do his thing, I thought he did a great job with those opportunities. He's a good football player and he's going to have a lot of really good days like that."
If Cooper continues on the pace he is on now, he will surpass 1000 yards in the next two weeks. It also puts him on pace to reach 1238 yards by the end of the season.
Should he pass 1000 yards, he would be the first Raiders receiver to do it since Randy Moss had 1005 yards in 2005. If he stays on pace, he would have the most receiving yards by a Raider since Tim Brown had 1344 receiving yards in 1999. It would also put him in the top 10 Raiders receiving seasons all time.
Cooper already set a new Raiders rookie receiving record, surpassing James Jett's previous record (771) set in 1993. More games like Sunday and he'll have his sights on the Raiders record books.
Loading comments...