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Former Alabama WR Amari Cooper hopes to avoid second-half swoon in 2017
By Adam Spencer
Published:
Last year, former Alabama WR Amari Cooper had 58 catches for 843 yards and two touchdowns through the Oakland Raiders’ first eight games.
In the final eight games, he had three touchdowns, but only caught 31 passes for 366 yards as his production noticeably dipped.
His rookie season in 2015 followed a similar script, so the former first-round pick said at a press conference this week that he is looking to change that as the 2017 season approaches (via AL.com):
“Of course it’s been on my mind,” Cooper said. “But it’s a good thing to me because I feel like I can go nowhere but up. I know that I can have a lot more production than I’ve had in the past two seasons. So we’ll just see.”
Cooper dealt with some nagging injuries during the final part of the 2016 season, but he didn’t want to blame his production dip on that fact:
“There’s no excuse there because every player in the last eight games has some sort of injury,” Cooper said. “You just play through it and try to do the best for your team.”
Of course, having put up at least 70 catches and 1,000 yards in each of his first two seasons, it’s safe to say Cooper will still have a great season in 2017, even if he does most of his damage in the first eight games yet again.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 14 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.