Browns receiver Amari Cooper is on his third team in eight seasons, so he has seen more than his share of quarterbacks. He has played with Derek Carr, EJ Manuel, Matt McGloin, Dak Prescott, Cooper Rush, Ben DiNucci, Garrett Gilbert, Andy Dalton and Jacoby Brissett.
Deshaun Watson returns from his suspension, so he will become the 10th quarterback with whom Cooper has had to get timing.
“He has great anticipation, but really you attribute that to his hard work,” Cooper said, via Dan Labbe of cleveland.com. “He’s real good at, ‘OK, this is my receiver. I’m going to look at film of him to see how he runs routes,’ so that he can know how to anticipate throwing you certain routes.”
Passing game coordinator Chad O’Shea sent Watson clips of Cooper with the Raiders and Cowboys, so that Watson could get a feel for his new No. 1 receiver.
Cooper, who the Browns acquired in an offseason trade with the Cowboys, ranks 13th with 792 receiving yards. He is on pace for the highest yardage total of his career.
Cooper’s seven touchdowns are one shy of tying his career high.
His numbers could improve with Watson at quarterback.
“Deshaun Watson, he’s just a great quarterback. Does a lot of things well,” Cooper said. “The accuracy we alluded to earlier, throws a great ball. Easy to catch. Obviously, it’s going to be exciting to play with him in an actual game.”
Cooper said Brissett and Watson both throw an easy-to-catch ball.
“The timing is a bit different,” Cooper said, “but you get used to that as a receiver catching from a whole bunch of different quarterbacks. Usually with the quarterbacks, they’re more comfortable doing certain routes than others. So I guess that’s one of the biggest adjustments.”