BEREA, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Amari Cooper doesn’t appear to be your typical diva WR-1.
That doesn’t mean Cooper isn’t passionate or doesn’t carry a chip on his shoulder after being traded by the Cowboys to Cleveland in March.
"Of course. To be traded and stuff like that, it's motivating,” Cooper said Thursday morning. “If you don't have a chip on your shoulder, then what do you have, even if you don't get traded or released by a team. There should always be some type of motivating factor there."
A four-time Pro Bowler who has tallied 517 catches, 7,076 yards and 46 touchdowns over seven seasons with the Raiders and Cowboys, Cooper doesn’t have much to prove, other than he still is a major problem on a football field.
“He is a little bit more lowkey, not loud and boisterous,” head coach Kevin Stefanski said. “He is a great teammate. He is brilliant, smart. I sit right behind him in meetings. He is as smart of a player as I have been around.”
That’s high praise from Stefanski, who enters his third year in Cleveland where he’s tried to instill attention to detail from Day 1.
“I really enjoy having him out here. I enjoy watching him work,” Stefanski said. “He is such a big, imposing figure at that position, and to watch him go through drills and take extra reps, he will not take himself out.
“He is a pro’s pro all of the way.”
Cooper doesn’t spend half of practice working on one-handed catches, or celebrations, or dance moves. He just runs his routes with precision and catches the football when it is thrown to him.
The expectations for Cooper to carry a young receiving corps are sky high. It feels like living up to them shouldn’t be a problem.
“You can’t get here without making plays,” Cooper said. “If you’re not making plays, you won’t be in the league very long.”
The marriage for Cooper with Stefanski and his offense appears to be off to a good start.
“You have some play callers who are just strictly scheme, you know what I mean? No matter who’s out there playing, no matter the players, what their skillset is, they just call a scheme,” Cooper said. “You have some coaches who do a combination of both. You have some coaches who are very, very intentional about taking advantage of the matchups and the skillset of the players. I think Kevin, he’s really intentional about implementing plays that are good for the skillset of the players, and I’ve been able to see a lot of that early on particularly with me with double moves and stuff like that.
“That’s something that I’ve shown I think throughout my career, and we have a lot of those [plays] in but without getting into too much detail about the offense, he’s done that with all of the players across the board.”
Cooper seems to be as cool as they come. It’s refreshing and impossible not to notice his professional approach during practice.
Deshaun Watson’s status for the upcoming season hovers over camp like a dark cloud, but not for Cooper, who isn’t sweating whatever Sue L.
Robinson may decide or when she may announce it.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen. I can’t tell the future,” Cooper said. “Nothing has come out yet, but, obviously, working with all the guys, if something does happen, you have to be ready.”
Whether it is Watson or Jacoby Brissett in Week 1, Cooper’s approach to doing his job remains the same.
“To me, no matter who is back there, I just have to make the job easier for whoever it is,” Cooper said. “That's my goal every time I line up out there. As long as I handle my business, get open, it’s easy on whoever is back there. If I don't get open, it's hard on whoever is back there.”
