NFL Rumors: Amari Cooper Gets $5M Raise; Browns Guarantee Remaining $20M on Contract

The Cleveland Browns agreed to an amended contract with wide receiver Amari Cooper, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.

Schefter reported the Browns guaranteed Cooper's $20 million base salary and gave him a $5 million raise. Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com added the agreement paved the way for him to report to the team's facilities for training camp.

Even if he hadn't been headed for free agency in 2025, the five-year, $100 million pact Cooper originally signed with the Dallas Cowboys got significantly outpaced by the market. His $20 million average salary ranks 20th at the position.

The five-time Pro Bowler had some added ammunition because the Browns already handed Jerry Jeudy a three-year extension worth $52 million after acquiring him from the Denver Broncos.

Jeudy had four solid years in Denver but failed to eclipse 1,000 receiving yards in any of those seasons, and he's clearly the No. 2 threat in Cleveland's passing game. If the team nonetheless saw fit to pay him $17.5 million a year, then Cooper had every right to ask for a relatively substantial raise.

Things started coming to a head in June, when Cooper didn't report for mandatory minicamp, a decision that made his priorities clear.

Head coach Kevin Stefanski confirmed his wasn't an absence excused by the team.

"Obviously as you guys know, you really have to focus on the guys that are here," Stefanski told reporters on June 12. "These situations, I understand that they do come up. I'll really leave all of that between Amari and Amari's Agent, [general manager Andrew Berry] and those type of conversations. But again, as you guys know, we focus on guys that are here. We'll get some good work in and really keep it at that."

In his first two years with Cleveland, Cooper caught 150 passes for 2,410 yards and 14 touchdowns, numbers that are even more impressive when considering how little Deshaun Watson has played — and his lackluster performances when he did play — since his trade from the Houston Texans.

However, the Browns had to balance what Cooper has done to this point against what his future may hold.

Plenty of attention has been drawn to how running backs can experience a pronounced decline as they get into their late 20s. The aging curve isn't much more forgiving for wide receivers, who can fall off quickly once they hit 30.

Watson's fully guaranteed $230 million deal means the Browns have to be extra judicious with their salary cap management. He counts for nearly $64 million against the cap for each of the next three seasons, and Cleveland is left without any sort of exit plan between now and 2026 that isn't prohibitively costly.

For a number of reasons, it was important to discover some middle ground with Cooper rather than writing a blank check in order to get him into camp. With this deal, the Browns found a way to make everybody happy.