Did the Cowboys hurt the NFL trade market with their bad Amari Cooper deal?

This was supposed to be a fun year of midseason NFL trades. Trades involving Carlos Hyde, Eli Apple, and Damon Harrison looked like the appetizer for a buffet of wild wheeling and dealing before the Tuesday deadline.

Ultimately, it didn’t end up being all that exciting. Golden Tate, Demaryius Thomas, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, Dante Fowler, Jr., and Ty Montgomery are all on different rosters now. But is it Jerry Jones’ fault we didn’t see any blockbuster deals on Tuesday involving anything more than a third-round pick?

Last week, the Dallas Cowboys sent a first-round pick to the Oakland Raiders for Amari Cooper — a wide receiver who has averaged 61.2 receiving yards per game in his career. There are 33 players averaging more than that this season, including running back Saquon Barkley.

They didn’t give up just any first-round pick either — it was one that belonged to a team that’s currently 3-4. That could end up being a top 10 selection if the Cowboys don’t straighten things out.

They sent that away for Amari Cooper!

Cooper was one of four players to finish with at least 10 drops in 2017. He did it on just 90 targets, while the other three with the case of the dropsies — Dez Bryant (12), Keenan Allen (11), and Demaryius Thomas (10) — were all targeted at least 120 times. The point is: Cooper hasn’t played well since his rookie year.

Maybe he’ll get things back on track in a Cowboys offense that hasn’t exactly racked up passing yards since Dak Prescott took over. But either way, it was a silly amount to give up for Cooper when a receiver as talented as Josh Gordon was acquired for just a fifth-round pick by the Patriots, and Golden Tate and Demaryius Thomas were moved for mid-round picks.

Clearly the deal didn’t kill the market entirely. A decent amount of the players rumored to be on the trading block ended up getting moved. But nothing really special happened. The Giants and Raiders were said to be ready for fire sales, but neither did anything Tuesday.

It’s impossible to know what the trade market would’ve looked like if Cooper ended up getting traded for a reasonable price. Maybe we would’ve seen a star like Odell Beckham Jr. or Patrick Peterson get moved. But when a player like Cooper is worth a first-round pick, it’s awfully hard to accept anything less than an outrageous amount for an actually elite player.

Any chance of a real blockbuster deal died when the Cowboys gave up a dang first-round pick for a receiver not nearly worth that.