Raiders wide receiver Amari Cooper played “on one foot” last season, according to quarterback Derek Carr. That might explain why Cooper’s third season wasn’t as productive as his first two.
“He will never tell you, and he’ll never even talk about it, but that man was out there playing on one foot,” Carr said on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Radio. “He’s out there just trying to battle for his teammates. A lot can be said about the way it didn’t work out, and stats and all those things, but the thing that I want to talk about is: I will roll with that guy any day of the week. He’s out there trying to give it his all, even though he could barely get out there and do it. That’s the kind of guy I want to play with. That’s how I know we’re going to be just fine.
“He would never say it to you, no one would ever say it to you, but I’ll say it to you to have his back. That man was out there playing as hard as he could and giving everything he could and, honestly, a lot of guys probably wouldn’t have even played with what he had going on. I commend him for what he was doing. We’re going to continue to work. We’re going to continue to do everything we need to do to be better, communicate, all those things, and going forward I’m pretty sure we’ll be just fine.”
Cooper battled foot issues at Alabama. He played through a foot injury his rookie season, too. But the Raiders never listed him on their 2017 injury report with a foot injury. It was unclear whether Carr was referring to Cooper’s ankle.
Cooper injured his left ankle on the same play Broncos safety Darian Stewart gave Cooper a concussion on an illegal hit in Week 13. Cooper missed two games with the high-ankle sprain.
Cooper finished with only 48 catches for 680 yards and seven touchdowns, and he dropped five passes, according to STATS. After topping 1,000 yards in each of his first two seasons, Cooper’s numbers in 2017 invited questions.
“We have a great relationship,” Carr said. "[Communication] is something that we’re always working on. It’s something that him and I are learning how to communicate better. Him and I are learning how to talk to one another and get accomplished what we both want to get done, and that’s to dominate. It’s a work in progress, and we hit a bump in the road him and I.”
