Ranking the 5 worst NFL contracts ahead of the 2022 season

No. 2 worst contract in the NFL: Amari Cooper, WR, Cleveland Browns

5 years, $100 million, $60 million guaranteed

The Dallas Cowboys were paying wide receivers $20 million per year before it was cool to do so.

Dallas gave Amari Cooper a $100 million deal in 2020 after rumors that he might be interested in potentially signing with the Washington Football Team.

If you need a true indicator of just how bad this contract is, consider all of the insane wide receiver trades we saw over the course of the 2022 offseason.

Cooper is not a similar player to Tyreek Hill or Davante Adams (though his pay is not far off) but he was effectively traded for a fifth-round selection when most players getting traded at his position were going for at least a first-round pick if not much more.

After he was traded to the Cleveland Browns, he converted more than $18 million of his base salary in 2022 to a signing bonus out of necessity.

The Browns put almost $8 million of that into future years when Cooper is not even under contract with the team.

For what Cooper brings to the table, $20 million per season was always an overpay. Two years after he signed the deal, Dallas predictably had to move on to get that deal off the books, and they got bad value in return.