The previous post created a discussion on Riley Cooper that spilled over to Twitter. Here are some of the key tweets to provide background.

@shlynch Any idea of what a reasonable contract for Riley Cooper would be? — Tommy Lawlor (@lawlornfl) January 10, 2014

@lawlornfl He might get $2m ish. It will be interesting to see if teams think he's anything more than just a JAG. — Sam Lynch (@shlynch) January 10, 2014

@Jeff_McLane @lawlornfl @shlynch In other words, Riley's people want more, or Eagles/other teams plan to give him more? — Brian Solomon (@Brian_Solomon) January 10, 2014

@Brian_Solomon @lawlornfl @shlynch Both. Threw out number $5 mil to someone who would know and he said more. Was shocked but not many FA WRs — Jeff McLane (@Jeff_McLane) January 10, 2014

@Jeff_McLane @Brian_Solomon @lawlornfl I just don't believe the market will be there — I don't know who commits long term to him as a WR2. — Sam Lynch (@shlynch) January 10, 2014

Okay, take all of that in.

Riley Cooper is a free agent. The Eagles want him back. The question is how much you pay him. The Eagles may have a very different number in mind from what Riley and his agent think he’s worth.

Let’s deal with facts to start with.

Riley’s stats

Year Games Starts Rec. Yards TDs YPC Rec of 20+ Yds 2010 13 2 7 116 1 16.6 3 2011 16 3 16 315 1 19.7 5 2012 11 5 23 248 3 10.8 3 2013 16 15 47 835 8 17.8 13

We know Riley is a good blocker. We know he can make tough catches, downfield or in traffic. He doesn’t have great hands, as evidenced by Saturday’s drop, but he will make some tough plays.

Riley showed a great deal of progress as a route runner this year. He still lacks the quickness and great cutting ability to break away from tight man coverage on a consistent basis.

Speed is a tough thing to quantify. Riley has good straight-line speed, but isn’t a burner. He does run well for such a big guy.

One of the areas where Riley is special is in his ability to track deep balls. Chip Kelly has talked about how his baseball background comes in to play here. Riley, like an outfielder going after a deep fly ball, is able to see the ball while on the move. He’s able to adjust to it while on the move. Some receivers have to start and stop as they move around. Riley slows down, but stays on the move.

Riley is a good “big WR”. He plays big. Hank Baskett acted like he was Marvin Harrison and that drove me nuts. If you’re big, play big. Riley can take contact from a DB and still make the catch. He can take contact and not lose sight of the ball. He will run through some arm tackles. Riley will try to be elusive with the ball at times, but isn’t afraid to try to run over a defender.

Not only is he good as a downfield receiver, Riley became a Red Zone weapon. He was 8-68-5 this year. Jeremy Maclin topped that in 2010, going 11-104-7, but those are really impressive numbers from Riley when you consider how little he got the ball for the first half of the year. Riley became the primary Red Zone weapon. He wasn’t getting the ball on trick plays. They ran him on crossing route after crossing routes, using Riley’s speed, size and ability to catch the ball in traffic.

Now let’s get subjective.

Could Riley put up such good numbers in another system and/or with another QB? This a huge mistake that teams make in free agency. They overpay for a player and then don’t use the guy the right way. What in the name of Nnamdi Asomugha am I talking about? Sorry, can’t think of a good example.

We know Riley works well in this offense. We know Chip Kelly loves him. We know Nick Foles trusts him.

When playing with Michael Vick for the first 4 weeks, Riley had 8 total catches. His long pass was 16 yards. In Foles first start, Riley was 4-120-1 with a pair of plays over 40 yards. This isn’t a knock on Vick. They just didn’t work well together due to their playing styles. I predicted before Foles first start that Cooper would become a bigger part of the offense. Why? Foles is willing to throw to a covered receiver. Vick prefers guys to be wide open. Cooper isn’t going to get wide open. He’s just not that kind of receiver. Foles threw to covered receivers for 4 years at Arizona. All Foles needs is the right angle. If he’s got that, he’ll put the ball in a tight space and give his receiver a chance to make a play.

The huge question with Riley and other teams is whether he’d be considered a toxic presence in their locker room. The Eagles players have either forgiven him or have learned to set their feelings aside. Riley spent the past 5 months rehabbing his image to those men. It seems to have worked. Players on the other 31 teams might not be so accomodating. They would need time to figure out if Riley was a good guy who had an awful moment or if he’s a jerk that finally got exposed.

I tend to think other teams would be nervous about Riley for a variety of reasons. He just had a breakout year. That screams caveat emptor. History is filled with guys who got a deal after a career year and who then faded into the background. Riley is a tough sell to the locker room because of his incident. The coach or GM who signs him will also have to deal with some media backlash. Riley isn’t a #1 receiver and he’s not a natural slot. He is really limited to being the #2 guy. He needs the right pieces around him to succeed.

If he’s smart, Riley will stay put. This is a situation where he knows he can succeed. He’s got to see what’s out there, though. I get that. I just don’t see many teams going for him. One that would be interesting is the Patriots. Belichick loves WRs who will block and do the dirty work. They’s had a very hard time developing weapons for Brady. With Gronk being injured, the Pats could use a good RZ weapon. They didn’t have any receiver with more than 6 TDs this year. Brady and Belichick could sell any player to their locker room.

This is going to be a really interesting situation to watch play out.

_