Eagles ink Riley Cooper to five-year, $25M deal

By Adam Silverstein
February 27, 2014

Former Florida Gators wide receiver Riley Cooper agreed to a five-year, $25 million contract with the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday, locking up the team’s second-leading pass catcher before he was eligible to hit free agency.

Cooper, who was paid $2.11 million over the four years of his rookie deal, will earn $10 million guaranteed with the fifth year serving as a team option.

After reeling in 46 receptions for 680 yards and four scores during his first three NFL seasons, Cooper bested all those numbers in 2013 alone with 47 catches for 835 yards and eight touchdowns.

He was heavily featured in head coach Chip Kelly’s high-octane offense and was obviously an important piece that Philadelphia was worried about losing.

Just seven months ago, Cooper was embroiled in controversy when a video of him yelling an obscene racial slur at a bouncer who was working at a Kenny Chesney concert leaked online. He took full responsibility and apologized profusely but had the incident hanging over him throughout the offseason.

Thanks to support from his teammates, Cooper was able to overcome the obstacle and have a career year. Many believed the incident would keep another team from bringing him into their locker room, but the Eagles obviously believed there was enough interest to pay Cooper, the No. 159 overall pick in the fifth round of the 2010 NFL Draft, well in order to keep him from reaching free agency.

Photo Credit: Joe Camporeale, USA TODAY Sports

11 Comments

  1. Michael Jones says:

    Love to see my boy getting paid. Big Riley Cooper fan.

    I think Riley is actually a class act who had a bad moment. It’s a tough deal to have to go through your whole life being judged based on your worst moment. Kudos to the Eagles for moving on, for forgetting and forgiving. Kudos especially to his teammates, guys like Vick and others, who stood by him and defended him for who they truly believed him to be as a person.

    • Albert says:

      What do you base your comment on?

      Riley Cooper is not a class act. He has not gone through his whole life being judged based on one moment, it has only been the past year. From my experience of seeing him around campus and out on the town, he is just another self-centered arrogant football player. All it took was one little video to show it.

      • Alberta says:

        I’m gonna back Albert up on this one. My only encounter with Cooper involved him showing his ass at the bar and then walking out on his tab.

    • gatorboi352 says:

      Yeah I concur with the two comments above. Cooper (and many other members of that 08 championship squad) is a real jerk, and a bigot to boot. Class act? Hardly. I live in Gainesville and have encountered a number of UF athletes, Coop included, over my 30 years around here.

      I swear I dunno how Tebow survived that locker room, and how they had the successes on the field that they did.

    • Ken (CA) says:

      With virtually no privacy in today’s world where everyone has a camera in their pocket all the time, it is bound to be any small misstep for anyone gets flashed all over. Bad choice by him, but no one is perfect all the time, and grats to him for playing hard and working hard to earn the rewards for his effort

  2. SW FL Joe says:

    Donations to Gator Boosters and the UF Alumni Association are tax deductable.

    • Contributions to OnlyGators.com are not – but still appreciated.

      • Ken (CA) says:

        haha Adam, knew that was the case, but sure would be nice….of course the new house bill that is 10% tax to all except 25% to those making 400k +/yr if gets any traction will make deductions pretty irrelevant, as folks won’t keep getting ripped out of their hard work to pay for the 47% that pay no taxes at all!

  3. gatorcooken says:

    I love Cooper the player, but he’s been an arrogant ass since my friends knew him at CCC. But good for him, he’s worked hard to get where he is. Kudos

  4. Michael Jones says:

    So it’s unanimous? We all agree that Riley Cooper is a wholesome, humble, classy young man who deserves every good break that comes his way?? Ha ha ha ha . . . . .

    It’s a free country, but sometimes I wonder what other people, people who aren’t Gator fans, think of us and our comment boards.

    • Ken (CA) says:

      Lol dot care what they think, we all know the jealousy and how thrilled that UF finally had a bad football season and the pile on. We still are rocking and rolling when you look at #1 softball #2 Gym (don’t get that since w beat 1 and 3, their scoring is weir), #3 W tennis, #1 track, Swimming just won SEC championships with Biesel as one of best women’s simmers in the world, and on and on….they can keep hating I will criticize when I feel they are going wrong direction, but can’t argue the top to bottom quality athletic program Foley has built, no matter what all said about his comments about WM last year.

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