Fun time of year when players talk about their goals for the upcoming season. Sometimes they're reasonable, but you also get some kooky talk. Like Dallas' Amari Cooper yesterday talking about going for 2,000 receiving yards.
Cooper talked about it in a Pro Football Talk interview. It's never been done, of course, and not by plenty of wideouts over the years a whole lot better than Cooper. And playing in a passing offense much better than Dallas.
In Cooper's four seasons in the league, he's missed only three games. But his career-high in yardage is 1,153 back in 2016. While Dallas in the last four years, which includes three seasons of Dak Prescott, has had one of the league's lesser passing offenses.
Since 2015, Dallas hasn't ranked any higher than 20th in passing: 27th, 23rd, 20th and 27th. On average, they've ranked 24th over that span, better than only two teams (Tennessee and Buffalo).
| TEAM PASSING RANKS, 2015-2018 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | '15 | '16 | '17 | '18 | Avg |
| New England | 4 | 5 | 1 | 9 | 3 |
| Pittsburgh | 3 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 5 |
| Atlanta | 6 | 2 | 9 | 4 | 5 |
| New Orleans | 1 | 1 | 6 | 15 | 6 |
| LA Chargers | 2 | 9 | 3 | 11 | 6 |
| Tampa Bay | 21 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 10 |
| Detroit | 8 | 12 | 5 | 21 | 12 |
| Washington | 12 | 3 | 10 | 29 | 14 |
| Arizona | 5 | 7 | 12 | 32 | 14 |
| Philadelphia | 11 | 24 | 14 | 8 | 14 |
| NY Giants | 7 | 18 | 19 | 9 | 15 |
| Green Bay | 26 | 6 | 23 | 6 | 15 |
| Kansas City | 30 | 21 | 7 | 3 | 15 |
| Indianapolis | 22 | 4 | 30 | 7 | 16 |
| Seattle | 20 | 8 | 12 | 25 | 16 |
| Oakland | 17 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 17 |
| Baltimore | 9 | 11 | 29 | 23 | 18 |
| Denver | 14 | 21 | 20 | 19 | 19 |
| Jacksonville | 10 | 20 | 18 | 26 | 19 |
| Minnesota | 31 | 17 | 15 | 12 | 19 |
| Cleveland | 16 | 27 | 22 | 13 | 20 |
| LA Rams | 32 | 30 | 11 | 5 | 20 |
| Cincinnati | 18 | 13 | 26 | 24 | 20 |
| San Francisco | 28 | 32 | 8 | 14 | 21 |
| Miami | 13 | 26 | 16 | 28 | 21 |
| Houston | 19 | 29 | 21 | 16 | 21 |
| Carolina | 24 | 19 | 28 | 17 | 22 |
| Chicago | 25 | 15 | 32 | 22 | 24 |
| NY Jets | 15 | 28 | 24 | 27 | 24 |
| Dallas | 27 | 23 | 27 | 20 | 24 |
| Tennessee | 23 | 25 | 25 | 30 | 26 |
| Buffalo | 29 | 31 | 31 | 31 | 31 |
With passing production on the rise, a wide receiver will probably go over 1,000 yards one of these days. But it's unlikely to be Cooper, and it's unlikely to be with Dak Prescott at quarterback.
That said, I did recently select Cooper in a best-ball slow draft I'm participating in. It was late in the third round, and I'd drafted running backs with my top 2 picks -- had to have a wideout. Cooper was the 13th wideout drafted, right about where he shows up in our magazine rankings. I like him; just not, 2,000 yards like.
--Andy Richardson