Jerry Jones Defends Cowboys Trading Amari Cooper to Browns: 'I Like What We Did'

The Dallas Cowboys traded Amari Cooper to the Cleveland Browns last offseason for just a fifth-round pick and a sixth-round pick swap, a deal that ultimately was a salary dump given Cooper's lucrative contract.

And team owner Jerry Jones told reporters on Thursday that he didn't regret the decision.

"When I look at the salary involved, over $20 million a year, and I look at what we got with that salary to help this team that we wouldn't have been able to have with this team, had we kept him, I like what we did," he said.

That mirrored comments Jones made after the trade in March.

"We made a decision that that allocation should be better spent," he told reporters.

Cooper is still set to make $20 million in base salary in both the 2023 and 2024 seasons. The Browns likely won't mind—Cooper registered 78 catches for 1,160 yards and nine touchdowns, arguably the best season of his career.

The Cowboys, meanwhile, struggled to find a true No. 2 wide receiver behind CeeDee Lamb (107 catches for 1,359 yards and nine scores).

Michael Gallup (39 catches for 424 yards and four touchdowns) came back from a torn ACL the season prior and never quite found his groove. Noah Brown (43 catches for 555 yards and three touchdowns) had a solid season but wasn't the sort of game-changing second option the offense needed.

The result was a passing offense (219.8 YPG, 14th in the NFL) that was middle of the pack this season. The Cowboys will have two options heading into the offseason: Either look to make a splash at wideout, or hope either Gallup or rookie Jalen Tolbert steps up next season.

Both Brown and tight end Dalton Schultz are free agents, alongside running back Tony Pollard and several key players on defense. And with the Cowboys already estimated to be about $7.6 million over the 2023 salary cap, per Spotrac, they'll have to make some tough decisions on who to bring back.

That could make a splashy move at wide receiver all the less likely. Being free of Cooper's $20 million salary offered them more flexibility at other positions on the roster from an asset perspective, but it's hard to deny that they missed his production last season, even en route to a second straight 12-win season.