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Report: Amari Cooper informs Las Vegas Raiders of intention to retire from football

Originally posted on 5 GOATs | By Alex Byington | Last updated Sep 4, 2025 4:01 PM ET

Amari Cooper has opted to hang up his cleats after a decade in the NFL rather than attempt one more comeback in Las Vegas this season, according to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport. Cooper reportedly informed the Raiders brass “he no longer has the desire to play and intends to retire,” according to Rapoport.

The 31-year-old Cooper signed a one-year, $3.5 million deal with the Raiders — the franchise that originally drafted him with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft out of Alabama — in late August to play what would be his 11th season in the NFL. Alas, the Crimson Tide legend is now calling it a career after 10 years in the league.

Comeback no more: #Raiders WR Amari Cooper has informed the team that he no longer has the desire to play and intends to retire, per The Insiders.

Cooper had signed at the end of camp in a hopeful reunion with the team that drafted. Now, he’s headed home from Las Vegas. pic.twitter.com/jEZHPHBPBq
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 4, 2025

Cooper caps his NFL career as a five-time Pro Bowl selection with 711 career receptions, 10,033 receiving yards and 64 receiving touchdowns in 154 games across 10 seasons with the Raiders, Dallas Cowboys, Cleveland Browns and briefly the Buffalo Bills for the final half of the 2024 season.

Cooper’s best season came in 2023 when he tallied 1,250 receiving yards on 72 receptions and five scores in his second-to-last year with the Browns. The year before, Cooper had a career-best nine receiving touchdowns while starting all 17 games in a season for the first time in a career that was repeatedly derailed by injuries. He also posted a career-high 92 receptions in 2020 with the Cowboys, the franchise with which he found the most production.

Cooper was expected to provide the Raiders a valuable veteran presence in a relatively young Las Vegas receivers room in which second-year tight end Brock Bowers out of Georgia is the unquestioned No. 1 target for new quarterback Geno Smith. Smith was acquired in an offseason trade to lead the Raiders offense in the program’s first season under 73-year-old veteran NFL head coach Pete Carroll.

Jakobi Meyers, Las Vegas’ top wideout, requested a trade in late August. Entering the final year of his three-year, $33 million contract, Meyers wants out after failing to reach an agreement with the Raiders on a new deal. According to Rapoport, Las Vegas doesn’t plan on honoring the request with this season still being left on Meyers’ deal.

Behind Meyers, the Raiders are stocked with unproven receiver depth. Tre Tucker is a third-year pro, while Dont’e Thornton Jr. and Jack Bech are rookies.

— On3’s Nick Geddes contributed to this report.

This article first appeared on 5 GOATs and was syndicated with permission.

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