Amari Cooper pushes through frustrations, trade rumors as Browns continue to slide

LANDOVER, Md. — The word "frustrated" – including its other forms of "frustration" and "frustrating" – came out of Amari Cooper's mouth at least five times following the Cleveland Browns' 34-13 loss Sunday to the Washington Commanders.

“It’s always frustrating to lose," Cooper said. "To lose in the fashion we did is even more frustrating. So hey, just got to go back to the drawing board, continue to improve, turn this thing around."

For the fifth time this season, the Browns' offense failed to reach at least 20 points. The unit went nearly 53 minutes without scoring a touchdown. Cooper had the longest catch of the day, a 19-yard connection on the first play of the second quarter.

Cooper finished with four catches for 60 receiving yards and was targeted 10 times. From the start of the game, the receiver and quarterback Deshaun Watson didn't appear on the same page. Watson looked to him on a deep post route on the third play of the game, but the pass landed harmlessly for an incompletion. The two tried another deep shot from the Browns' own end zone, but after Watson's toss sailed over Cooper's head with zero chance of completion, the wideout walked off looking dejected. Later in the first half, Cooper couldn’t catch up to Watson’s throw that led him to the sideline on an intermediate out route. 

"If I had all the answers, it wouldn’t be happening," said Cooper. "So I really can’t adequately answer that."  

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Through the first two games of the season, Cooper managed five catches for 27 yards. He rebounded with a pair of touchdown receptions in a win against the New York Giants, but he doesn't have a gain of more than 24 yards this season as one of the centerpieces of an offense desperately seeking explosive plays.

Cooper entered Sunday with a league-high eight drops. Last week in a loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, Cooper lamented letting a ball bounce off his chest that ended up being intercepted and returned for a touchdown in an eventual four-point loss.

"I’ve just been trying to correct myself the last few weeks, as far as what stood out, with me not playing my best football," the five-time Pro Bowl receiver said Sunday.

As teams such as the Kansas City Chiefs seek help at wideout, Cooper's name is surely to come up in trade rumors; ESPN reported over the weekend that teams are expected to make calls on him ahead of the Nov. 5 trade deadline. Cooper dismissed that report as just that – rumors – during the week. During the offseason, the Browns restructured Cooper's deal, and the reduction of his base salary to $1.2 million, according to overthecap.com, makes his contract all the more palatable for a team to inherit midseason. This is the final season of a five-year, $100 million deal he originally signed with the Cowboys.

What keeps Cooper believing in the Browns is a Hollywood ending – "things that people write about" – much like the run Cleveland went on with Joe Flacco quarterbacking the team to the top AFC wild-card seed last season.

"Teams start off bad all the time. There’s only two ways to go from here. Hopefully we can be one of those teams to turn it around," Cooper said. "That’s what we’re looking forward to doing.

 "Without hope, what do you really have? So of course I’m very hopeful."