Myriad factors go into developing trade compensation, and Jerry Jones is more than satisfied with the factors he considered before trading Amari Cooper over two years ago.
The veteran wideout was on the move again last week, with the Browns sending him to the Buffalo Bills. When the Cowboys traded Cooper to Cleveland in March of 2022, they received a fifth-round pick in return, and the two sides swapped sixth-round picks. In making the trade, the Cowboys also got out from under the roughly $20 million they were due to owe Cooper.
The Browns managed to get third- and seventh-round picks from the Bills for Cooper and a sixth. However, they had converted the bulk of his salary to a signing bonus entering the season, and now they will have $7.937 million in dead money on the books for this season, and $22.584 million for next year, according to former agent and current NFL analyst Joel Corry.
So, while the draft pick compensation the Browns got for an older Cooper (who also is a pending free agent) is better than what the Cowboys got, there are financial ramifications for Cleveland that Dallas didn’t have to deal with.
Jones told Shan & RJ on Tuesday that’s why he’s not fretting the difference in returns.
“We went for the dollars,” Jones said. “When we traded Amari Cooper, we saved almost $20 million for our cap and in the future. We took a lesser draft pick to get that saved. When (Andrew Berry) made this move the other day, Cleveland went for more draft pick and less savings. It was very simple.”
The Browns seemed intent on moving Cooper, and sending him to Buffalo – which did not have much cap space – only was possible because of the financial burden they are taking on the rest of this season and beyond.
To the Browns, getting that pick made it worth the risk. Clearly, that’s not where Jones’ head was at in March 2022.