It was no secret the Raiders needed a little help in the wide receiver room going into the regular season, but the addition of Amari Cooper was not a move many saw coming.

Cooper gives the Raiders much-needed depth at wide receiver, but according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Vinny Bonsignore, the decision to sign Cooper wasn’t something that everyone in the Raiders’ building was necessarily on board with – at least not right away.

More specifically, it sounds like GM John Spytek might have been talked into signing Cooper by the head coach.

“I’m going to say this. I think this is a Pete Carroll move completely,” Bonsignore said of the Raiders signing Cooper. “There was probably a little bit of arm wrestling going on about this one. You have a veteran coach who wants to win right now. Amari Cooper is going to come in and whether he makes the Raiders better, we’re going to find out.”

“But what he is going to do, I believe, is potentially roadblock a couple of young players that the organization drafted this year. I’m talking specifically about Dont’e Thornton, maybe even Tre Tucker. His time might get reduced because of this. Dont’e Thornton’s time might get reduced because of this indirectly, even though they don’t necessarily play the same position. Jack Bech, the rookie from TCU’s time is undoubtedly going to be impacted by this if Amari Cooper is healthy and he’s contributing and he’s out there playing. I wouldn’t have done it,” Bonsignore continued.

“I’m not going to say that everybody in that building was gung-ho about this move, but I do believe… if the head coach wants him and he’s like, ‘This is one that I really want’… sometimes as a general manager, as an organization, as that side of the building, you side with your head coach, whether it’s part of your master plan or goes against kind of what you’re trying to do in terms of rebuilding this roster. I think this is one that gave the head coach and you just move on.”

At Tuesday’s press conference, Cooper was pretty clear that Carroll had been recruiting him for a while, so there’s no question he had the head coach in his corner from the start.

Additionally, it’s fair to wonder if the addition of Cooper might have been a concession on Spytek’s part with Jakobi Meyers’ contract situation in mind.

There are reasons to believe Meyers will end up working out a compromise with the Raiders on his current deal, but Raider Nation Radio host Q Myers hinted this week that Carroll is probably one of louder voices in the building in favor of extending Meyers’ contract before the season.

“Pete Carroll has pounded the table about [how] he wants to win right now. This is not something he’s trying to build up to a three, four-year deal before they have a chance to win. He wants to win now. And if that’s what you’re trying to do, Jakobi Meyers is your best option,” Myers said on the Locked on Raiders podcast.

“The only way I could see a trade happening is if John Spytek and Pete Carroll aren’t on the same page,” Myers continued. “They’ve been on the same page from what I know since they joined the team together back in January. As far as I’m concerned, they’ve been in lockstep with each other.”

“Obviously, I’m not in the room. I’m not hearing the conversations. I don’t know that, but we haven’t heard any rumblings that they’re not on the same page and that they both share the same plans and the same ideologies. And again, Pete Carroll has come out many times and said, ‘I’m ready to win right now.’ So if they’re not on the same page, if they’re not seeing eye to eye in the expectations for 2025 and how they’re going to get to becoming a winning organization, that’s the way I could see a trade happening.”