Some of the "experts" are predicting a salary cap bloodletting this year if the league is forced to play to empty stadiums. They're expecting a lot of higher-priced veterans to be dumped to save cash. I'm not so sure about that. The CBA has a spending floor that teams have to meet, so they can't just cut everyone to save a lot of money. They have to spend a lot no matter what.
Some interesting stats on Amari Cooper have emerged. He's apparently much better playing at home than on the road. In home games last year, he caught 52 passes for 869 yards and five TDs. On the road, he caught 27 passes for 320 yards and just three TDs. And it's not just that one year. In 2018 he more than doubled his yards at home and caught all seven TD passes at home. That's kind of a big dropoff on the road. Why? Does he feed off of the home crowd? Do visiting crowds get in his head? It does help explain why Garrett benched him in the Eagles game at Philly last year.
Or is it Dak doesn't throw to him on the road? Does Dak do more check downs on the road and not try to get the ball down the field? Does the crowd get to Dak? Is it an issue with the Cowboys audibles on the road where the home crowd can drown them out? A quick look at the targets shows Cooper was targeted 67 times at home to just 52 times on the road. A notable difference but not enough to really account for the difference in yardage and TDs.
In his home games, Cooper was targeted 67 times with 52 completions for 869 yards and five TDs for an average of 8.375 targets and 108+ yards per home game. In road games, Cooper was targeted 52 times with just 27 completions for 320 yards for an average of 6.5 targets and 40 yards per road game. Quite the dropoff.
I'm kind of guessing it was a combination of things with Dak, Cooper, and the o-line all combining for some share of the blame. Road crowd noise can prevent the o-line from making their adjustments letting more pressure get to the QB. More pressure on the QB makes him more likely to dump the ball off. That drops the number of targets Cooper sees.
Cooper might be one of those volume receivers who wants the ball thrown his way a lot and loses interest when it's not thrown his way making him less likely to get open and more prone to dropping the ball or not being exactly where he's expected to be.
Will this two-year trend continue? We'll have to see.
Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!