Ex-Raider Amari Cooper claims Mark Davis, not Jon Gruden, approved his trade

Amari Cooper isn’t only a different receiver with the Cowboys. He’s apparently trying his hand at news-breaking now, too.

Cooper told The Athletic’s Calvin Watkins Thursday that Raiders coach Jon Gruden didn’t want to trade him - rather, that owner Mark Davis spearheaded sending Cooper to Dallas for a 2019 first-round pick in late October. Watkins also included in his story that Cooper said former Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie didn’t want him traded, either.

That would contradict everything we’ve come to assume about Oakland’s hierarchy, which features Gruden atop the personnel food chain. Of course, Cooper’s claim raises the question of how he found this out. Maybe Gruden wanted to end on peaceful terms with his No. 1 wide receiver and said he wasn’t the one who forced him out, though that scenario is highly unlikely. Maybe a teammate overheard a conversation at Raiders HQ and relayed it to Cooper via text. Maybe Cooper is just making it up.

Regardless, he said it, and that counts for something.

However, it’s unlikely Davis and Gruden were on different pages regarding the Cooper trade, and especially unlikely Davis trumped Gruden in that debate. Yes, Davis is Gruden’s boss, but Gruden is master of all personnel decisions. That’s why we saw McKenzie fired as general manager this week, less than two years after winning NFL Executive of the Year. And Davis has made it crystal clear that he supports Gruden and his decisions, regardless of his team’s paltry record.

After all, Davis chased Gruden for six years and finally captured his golden snitch to be head coach. So common sense would have it Davis wouldn’t veto Gruden’s personnel wishes, let alone disagree with him in the first place.

“I empower people to do their jobs, so that’s the general manager and head coach,” Davis told reporters at owners meetings in Texas this week. “I’ll butt in and play devil’s advocate, but they have the final say on that stuff. I’ve always said that the only thing I know is what I don’t know, and I hire people that know that.”

McKenzie told local reporters the day of the trade that the deal materialized because Dallas finally bit on the Raiders’ wish for a 2019 first-rounder. McKenzie handled the phone call with Cowboys EVP Stephen Jones, and Gruden said later that week that team-building in general is a collaborative effort.

“I’m not going to speak for the owner. He’s available, I’m sure you can talk to him,” Gruden said then. “We’re working together, Reggie McKenzie, Mark Davis, myself, our coaching staff. Trying to, as I said, get some stability here, get this football team to a point where we can compete for championships. It’s hard to do without guys like we traded, but it’s also exciting to think that somewhere down the road we’ll have a chance to pick some pretty good players.”

The Raiders seemed to be clear winners of the trade at the time, but now both teams seem better off.

Cooper has singlehandedly transformed the Cowboys into a playoff team with 40 catches, 642 receiving yards and six touchdowns in six games. In that same span with Oakland this season, Cooper caught only 22 balls for 280 yards and one touchdown. Cooper reeled in 10 passes from Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott for 217 yards and three touchdowns last Sunday alone in an overtime win against the Eagles.

Raiders quarterback Derek Carr is playing better without Cooper, too, which defies logic since the Raiders are without their No. 1 receiver of the last three-plus seasons. So while both teams emerged stronger from a trade that happened almost two whole months ago, the deal is still making headlines with Cooper stirring the pot.