Amari Cooper cannot carry the Raiders, but I can tell you why people think that he can. Derek Carr has said that this guy is the LeBron James of the Raiders, but that is a silly and misguided ideal. You cannot expect any receiver to be that good, and you cannot expect them to carry your team. I will use the 49ers of the 80s and 90s to explain my point, and you will see how much easier it would be on the Raiders if Derek Carr decided he was their LeBron.
Why not Amari?
Amari is a very good player, but he is a receiver. Receivers cannot touch the ball enough to make your team fantastic, and you will not find out that a receiver can fix a team.
Look at the Giants. They have Odell Beckham Jr., and they are terrible. Tell me that Amari Cooper can be the LeBron James of the Raiders when their offense looks like the Cavaliers. You have to have the Brett Favre mentality at quarterback.
Jerry Rice could not do it
Jerry Rice is the best football player ever. That is all there is to it. He was so good for the 49ers that he is part of two of the best tandems of all time. He caught so many passes from Joe Montana and Steve Young that Young-Rice and Montana-Rice are both iconic pairs. However, the 49ers did not succeed because of Jerry Rice. They succeeded because every opponent was deathly afraid of him, and they got burned by John Taylor, Roger Craig, and others.
Tell me again how Jerry Rice was the best player on the 49ers and fixed their team. He did not. Amari Cooper is not Jerry Rice, and therefore, he cannot fix the Raiders.
Why is Carr deflecting?
I seriously hope that the Raiders are not deflecting attention from Derek Carr. First of all, he should have not come back from his injury yet.
Do they not realize that Tom Brady will retire and Derek Carr will be in his prime? Do they not realize that they can easily win a Super Bowl in a couple years because they will be the best team in football? I have no idea how they have not figured this out. Rest Carr, let Amari be Amari, and avoid the problems that they are having right now.
The Raiders are getting in their own way because they think they have to win now. They do not.
Derek needs to stop talking
I like Derek Carr, but I do not think that he knows how to control the narrative on his team. He should only be talking about how they have a good unit that should have reached its full potential. He needs to be talking about how the Raiders are on the cusp of greatness. All he had to do was say Amari Cooper is a great player.
