Raiders players aren’t happy with moves made by Jon Gruden

Earlier this week, the Oakland Raiders made yet another surprising move with the decision to trade former Pro Bowl wide receiver Amari Cooper to the Dallas Cowboys in exchange for a 2019 first-round pick.

This has apparently sent another shockwave through the organization with players taken even more off guard that the front office would move Cooper ahead of the trade deadline later this month, according to Vic Tafur of The Athletic.

Want $250 to bet on the NFL?

“The Mack trade was a real stiff jab,” one player told The Athletic. “But the Cooper one was like a knockout punch, especially because we had just walked back in the door from the bye. We didn’t want to believe it was coming, and Coach said we weren’t going to trade him.”

There had been rumblings that the Raiders were potentially shopping around Cooper to which head coach Jon Gruden had shot down. However, the Cowboys stepped up their offer to a first-round pick that may have taken them over the top to make a deal work out.

Read: 76ers’ Joel Embiid Says he Owns a Lot of Real Estate in Andre Drummond’s Head

This is yet another trade of a key piece to the puzzle with Cooper being among the core factors offensively. It has set the tone of further uncertainty around the franchise that has even shifted some of the attention of Pro Bowl quarterback Derek Carr’s long-term future with the franchise.

Beyond that, it has pushed forward more of a cloud over the Raiders that have been pushed forward by the team’s struggles on the field, losing five of their first six games played.