Amari Cooper shifts blame away from Gruden for Raiders trade

Maybe it’s not all Jon Gruden’s fault after all.

While the Raiders head coach has been blamed for trading away two of his best players this year, one says it wasn’t his decision.

Amari Cooper, who has been a game-changing wide receiver for the Cowboys since coming over from the Raiders in Week 8, told The Athletic it was owner Mark Davis who made the call on the trade, not Gruden or since-fired general manager Reggie McKenzie. According to Cooper, Gruden and McKenzie wanted to keep him in Oakland, but Davis pushed for a 2019 first-round pick in return and finally got it from the Cowboys, leading to the trade on Oct. 22. The Raiders initially were being offered 2020 first-rounders or 2019 second-rounders.

How the draft pick turns out for the Raiders remains to be seen, but the value of the pick has dropped since the trade with Cooper carrying the Cowboys to five wins in six games. That streak — in which Cooper has 40 receptions for 642 yards and six touchdowns — has moved the Cowboys atop the NFC East and slid the pick further back in next year’s draft.

“With Amari, he had a couple of good years with us and he had a couple of not-so-good years with us,” Davis said this week at the NFL owner’s meetings. “It was, I think, how he was used in our system versus how he’s actually as a player. As you see, we don’t throw a lot of balls down the field … .

“It just didn’t work out in our system. In the future, we might be saying ‘damn.’”

Unfortunately for Gruden, former Raider and current Bears pass rusher Khalil Mack has yet to come out and pin the responsibility on Davis for his trade, too. Mack is spearheading a Bears defense that has led the team to a 9-4 record and is on the verge of clinching the NFC North.

The Raiders are 3-10 in the first year of Gruden’s 10-year, $100 million deal.