Raiders 53-Man Roster Reaction & Amari Cooper’s Role in His Return

RAIDERS’ INITIAL 53-MAN ROSTER REACTION

The Raiders released their initial 53-man roster on Tuesday. For a full breakdown on every position group and how the Silver and Black went about filling out their squad, check out our roster reaction podcast above. I dove into some of the surprises, the reasoning behind those moves, and what it all means for the Raiders going forward. I also dove into all the craziness from Monday, where the Raiders traded for Kenny Pickett, denied Jakobi Meyers’ trade request, and brought Amari Cooper back into the fold.

For those of you who want some of the quick hitters to hold you over till you have the time to watch the full podcast, I’ve got you covered.

• Surprisingly, the Raiders chose not to place Aidan O’Connell on injured reserve, at least for now. Does this mean he could recover much faster than we all initially thought? Possibly, but that doesn’t seem likely. The more likely option? They eventually do toss him on injured reserve, and they run into the season with Geno Smith and Kenny Pickett as their QBs and use Cam Miller as their emergency QB.

• In line with that first takeaway, I didn’t expect them to cut Cam Miller; he’ll likely end up back on their practice squad, but I figured they’d roll with Cam and Kenny as their backups.

• After they signed Amari Cooper, I figured Alex Bachman or Tommy Mellott would be on the chopping block, but that’s because I assumed they’d roll with six wide receivers. Instead, they chose to go with five of them and released both Alex and Tommy. I figured Tommy would get cut, but after the camp Bachman had, I thought he had a legit shot to make the roster.

• I was also surprised to see the team go with Thomas Harper over Terrell Edmunds at safety. Harper had been dealing with injury issues, and Edmunds got mixed in with the ones at times and even took some reps at free safety, too. I figured that versatility would earn him a spot. Taking a step back makes sense, though. He was literally just a free agent, so they likely feel they can get him back on the practice squad. Pete really seemed to like his skillset, so I could see them elevating him at some point if they do get him back in the building.

MISS ANYTHING?

Catch up on some of our recent stories:

ALLOW ME TO REINTRODUCE MYSELF

Amari Cooper is back in Silver and Black. Can’t say I had that one on my bingo card.

Not only does Amari want to show he’s got some juice left, he also feels like he’s got something to prove to the Raiders. He was pretty honest about feeling like he didn’t fully live up to the standards he set for himself after the team drafted him with the fourth overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft.

Amari Cooper has been one of the most consistent receivers in the NFL since he entered the league back in 2015. He’s posted seven seasons of 1,000+ receiving yards, which is tied for second most in the NFL over that span, and second only to Mike Evans, who’s done it ten times.

Last season was a bit of a struggle for him, though. Splitting time between the Browns and the Bills, he recorded just 44 receptions, 547 receiving yards, and four touchdowns.

Initially, I looked at the move as an insurance play on the situation with Jakobi Meyers, but the more I think about it, the more I think it’s insurance for Dont’e Thornton Jr.’s development. The tail end of camp, he seemed to take a bit of a step back, and the consistency just wasn’t there with his hands or in the connection between him and Geno on deep balls. It looked good on their touchdown connection in the preseason finale against Arizona, but I think it’s still very much a work in progress.

Amari is a guy who excels on the outside as a route runner and has done a great job in the deep passing game, too. Pair that with Geno’s elite deep ball accuracy, and it’s a very intriguing combo. I don’t think he comes in and gets a ton of playing time over Dont’e in week one, but I’m not totally ruling that out either. We’ll just have to see how much ‘juice’ he does indeed have left in the tank.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The Raiders are back out at practice today, so we’ll be back at HQ for that later this afternoon. We’re also slated to speak with GM John Spytek, so it will be interesting to hear from him on the choices they made when putting together the initial 53-man roster.

We’re switching to our normal cadence of podcasts now as we shift to regular season mode. So now we’ll be dropping podcasts immediately after every Raiders game, and then every Tuesday and Thursday at 11 a.m. PST during the season. So make sure you keep an eye out for our next edition of the Silver & Black Sports Network Podcast this Thursday morning. We’re doing our first-ever Q&A podcast, so if you want your questions answered, go drop your inquiries into the comments of our last podcast linked above, or click on the link below to my tweet on the upcoming podcast and throw your question in the comments there.

Catch ya next time,