Oakland Raiders: Amari Cooper has surprisingly struggled in 2017

Oakland Raiders wide receiver Amari Cooper has been a surprise this season, but not in a good way. He has struggled to start the 2017 season…

Through his first two NFL seasons, Amari Cooper has looked like a star in the making an the focal point of an Oakland Raiders offense along with franchise quarterback Derek Carr.

In two years, Cooper racked up 2,223 yards on 155 receptions with 11 touchdowns and over 14 yards per reception.

So far in 2017, though, Cooper has been less than spectacular. Three games into this season, he’s actually been one of the most disappointing players in the league, and he’s struggling with something that appeared to have been fixed a season ago:

Drops.

Cooper has the highest drop rate of any wide receiver in the NFL right now, and twice as many dropped passes as anyone else in the league with six so far this season.

Not only is he dropping passes, he’s dropping onside kicks…

This is a bit of an alarming rate of drops for Cooper, who only dropped five passes all of last season. That was after a rookie season where he led the NFL with 18 dropped passes.

Michael Crabtree, oddly enough, led the NFL in dropped passes last year with 13. So, the Raiders are on a bit of an unfortunate streak right now and Cooper appears on track to lead the league again this year in this category.

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The Raiders have been able to compensate so far this season for a relative lack of production from Cooper, so it’s not like it’s been that big of a deal for them, but Cooper needs to be better. This is a player that’s being counted on by the Raiders to be a number one receiver, so he’s got to find a way out of the current funk he’s in.