Cowboys owner Jerry Jones expresses frustration with WR Amari Cooper

Fantasy football managers were not the only ones who were frustrated with Amari Cooper’s 2021 season.

In his weekly radio appearance Friday on 105.3 The Fan, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones expressed displeasure with the Cowboys receiver Cooper.

“How he fits in and he should take half the field with him when he goes and runs the field,” said Jones of Cooper, per Mark Lane of WFAA Sports. “Not half, that’s an exaggeration, of course. But a whole bunch of that defense should have to honor Cooper. He ought to be able to catch it when they’re going in the middle with him. Others do. You throw to people that are covered all the time in the NFL.”

Jones did add that he thought Cooper had “a big part” in the Cowboys’ early-season success. When asked about Cooper’s contract specifically, Jones said that he did not have any comment. But he also made some thinly-veiled remarks about playing up to the value of one’s contract.

“The reason those contracts are being discussed is because they have two sides to them: one’s got it coming and the other’s got to pay it,” said Jones. ”The one that’s got it coming is going to go out and perform usually to the level of the contract. That’s usually the way I think about those contracts.”

The former first-round pick Cooper had his worst season as a Cowboy in 2021. Although he still found the end zone eight times, Cooper managed only 68 receptions for 865 yards. That marked a sharp regression from his 2020 campaign during which he caught 92 passes for 1,114 yards.

Cooper did have to contend with the other talented pass-catchers in Dallas. CeeDee Lamb emerged as a true No. 1 target, Dalton Schultz had his best career season, Michael Gallup ate up targets in the second half of the year and even Cedrick Wilson became a threat in the passing game. But Cooper still tied for the second-most targets of the team, yet he could manage only the sixth-best catch percentage among Dallas’ qualified pass-catchers.

The 27-year-old Cooper has three years and $60 million left on his contract. But the Cowboys do have a potential out in 2022, meaning that they can get out of Cooper’s deal with just $6 million in dead cap.

Cooper himself sounded frustrated with his role earlier in the season. With Jones extremely disappointed after the team’s wild-card round exit, it begs the question of if the Cowboys could actually exercise that potential out on Cooper’s contract, especially in light of these latest comments from Jones.