WR Amari Cooper (10.12.23)
Amari, what do you make of the situation with the quarterback and how challenging is that for someone like you? Kind of preparing with so many moving parts and kind of uncertainty, I think at this point?
“At this point, yeah. I mean, it’s part of the game. This is my 9th year. I played with a multitude of different quarterbacks, been in situations similar to this before, so it’s not anything that surprising. You have to be very adaptable in these types of situations. As far as a challenge, I don’t really see much of a challenge. I mean, obviously, communicating with a new quarterback who I haven’t played in a game with before. But this is just the same. I go out there, I create separation, I catch the ball, I do my job.”
It’s pretty much the first week (PJ) Walker has thrown to the first teamers. What’s it been like in practice?
“It’s been cool. I caught a couple of balls from him. I mean, at the end of the day, it’s just a ball coming at you that you have to catch. I don’t really see it as a huge challenge. I don’t see it as a huge challenge as long as I do my job.”
San Francisco comes in. I think they’re giving up a lead low at 13 or so points per game. When you look at that defense, what’s made them so good, and what challenge does that present to you as someone who’s looking to go out there and make some plays against them?
“Yeah, I mean, they’re a very proficient defense. They do a lot of things well. The thing that jumps off the tape under the most is the speed. They all hustle to the ball every single snap. They try to create turnovers. They try to punch the ball out every single time. They have some skilled guys on the outside. They play physical. They really try to challenge you in a pass game. They really trust in their front seven to get to the quarterback and to make plays. So, I mean, I think they’re a good all around defense, so we just have to be a good all around offense.”
Amari, what does it say about David (Njoku)that he was able to go out there and play in that game after what happened to Friday night?
“Says a lot about him, showed a lot of toughness on his part, 100%. There are a lot of players who definitely would not have played with that happening to them less than 48 hours before the game for a good reason. I was actually surprised when he played as well, but it says a lot about his toughness.”
What was your initial reaction when you saw his face?
“Well, I’ve been burnt like that before. Not on my face. So I could just imagine the amount of the pain he felt. Yeah, it was crazy. I was just like, how the heck did he do this? What was he trying to do? But he was able to play through it, which was amazing because just putting the helmet on, I’m sure was very painful. So imagine getting tackled. Your helmet always coming down, you sweating. It was a lot. It was a lot he had to deal with. I commend him for that.”
How did you do it? How did you burn yourself?
“Well, I just burned myself because I played in Oakland, a baseball field. So I would get tackled on it all the time. I would scrape my skin to the white meat. I have to wrap it and stuff like that. But it wasn’t on my face.”
I know in the offseason, there was a lot of focus on finding ways to get explosive plays in the pass game. I think you guys have, like, seven plays. How do you think you can generate more explosives?
“Yeah, just throwing the ball downfield more. That’s the easiest way to generate an explosive, right? Just throw the ball downfield, let guys go up and make a play. There’s always the line between trying to scheme an explosive and just letting guys make plays. I’m all for either, but I could go up and make a play, or we could keep the scheme based off of the defense that’s placed in front of us.”
During the bye week, both Andrew Berry and Kevin Stefanski have mentioned turning the ball over on offense. Turning the ball is like main priority to try and eliminate coming out of this bye week. What do you do in practice to emphasize collectively, as a team, not just you individually, ball security?
“Yeah. I mean, turnovers is the biggest differentiating factor between winning and losing. So we just preach and drill and try to hone in on ball security, catching stuff, always protecting the football because it’s all about the ball. This is what the game is about, the ball. So the remedy for that is to protect the ball at all costs. The hopes and dreams of the organization, the Cleveland Browns organization, is in the guy who has the ball in his hand. So that’s how serious we take.”
Amari, I know you’ve talked about it and, like, Deshaun (Watson) and Jacoby (Brissett) last year, talked about the communication aspect with you and how much you lock in talk to them about things you’re seeing and stuff. How much important is that when you do have a new guy, potentially that could be starting? Just that communication?
“Yeah. Communication is very important. At the end of the day, you just want to be on the same page with the people you’re trying to achieve the same goal as. It’s just easier to achieve the goal that way. So that’s the perspective I look at it from.”
What’s most important in that communication? Is it just like you describing what you are seeing if it’s like a new guy out there?
“No, actually, I think the most important part is the feedback from both of us. It’s a two-way communication style. I’m telling him what I see on a certain play and I expect him to tell me what he sees on that same play. And then we come to a conclusion together on what’s the best way to attack that scenario.”
Has that been, kind of a little more of a point of emphasis this week especially just with PJ (Walker) I guess?
“Yeah, of course. Throughout the course of the week leading up to the game, we’re going to be constantly communicating. When we go out there today in practice, I’m sure we’ll have some plays that we need to communicate about before the game, so we’ll do that.”
Is there an advantage of knowing before game day that you’re going to have a different quarterback? You mean like in that Baltimore game you didn’t know until after warm ups that Deshaun (Watson) wasn’t playing.
“It could be an advantage from a communication standpoint, 100%. You just get to communicate with the guy who you know is going to be back there over a longer period of time.”
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