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'I'm not a perfect player': Browns WR Amari Cooper admits slow start 'frustrating'
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- 'I'm not a perfect player': Browns WR Amari Cooper admits slow start 'frustrating'
BEREA — No one needs to tell Amari Cooper the first two games of the season have been sub-par by his standards. No one understands the Browns Pro Bowl wide receiver's standards better than Cooper himself.
"Of course, you want to go out there and play your best brand of football individually as early as possible," Cooper said Thursday. "So definitely been frustrating. Hey, it is what it is. You got to go out there and just play your game, get back focused, lock back in, and that's what I'm looking to do."
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Cooper has caught just five passes for 27 yards through two games for the Browns (1-1), who play host to the New York Giants (0-2) on Sunday. It's the fewest receptions through two games he's had in any of his 10 seasons in the NFL.
The issue, more than the lack of catches, is the abundance of targets that have come Cooper's way. He's been targeted a team-high 17 times in those games, three more than either Jerry Jeudy or Elijah Moore .
"It's part of the game," quarterback Deshaun Watson said Wednesday. "It sometimes depends on the defensive coordinators and the way they scheme sometimes. It's the way that the game is just kind of playing out, but we never lose faith in each other, and it's long season and we've just got to continue to work and figure it out. But when it do click, it's definitely going to be very exciting for both of us."
Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback Montaric Brown (30) is called for pass interference against Cleveland Browns wide receiver Amari Cooper (2) on Sunday in Jacksonville, Fla.
It's not as if Cooper's being ignored by Watson. It's just that the connection isn't being completed between the time the ball leaves the quarterback's hands and gets in the wide receiver's vicinity.
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That hasn't prevented one question from coming up: Are the quarterback and wide receiver on the same page? To which Cooper said, sort of, that he believes that onus falls on him to improve, specifically in one area.
"We can always be more on the same page," said Cooper, who's the first Browns wide receiver to post back-to-back 1,000-yard receiving seasons (2022 and 2023). "I went out there yesterday, I practice like the game and that's what I'm going to go and do every single day. Practice forward, just treat the practice like the game, attacking it just like I would the game. I can't say I've necessarily been doing that, but that's what I got to do."
Cooper wouldn't necessarily discount the lack of OTA or minicamp reps — both of which he missed due to a contract issue with the Browns — as a partial cause, saying, "It's a tough question to answer because it was my first time actually missing OTAs and minicamp. So I guess you could say that if you want."
Cooper and Watson have had a slow start before in their time together in Cleveland . The first two games they played together in 2022 after Watson returned from an 11-game personal conduct policy suspension, Cooper had just six catches on 16 targets for 82 yards, including just two catches on seven targets for 42 yards in the second game in Cincinnati .
Cleveland Browns wide receiver Amari Cooper (2) lets a pass get through his fingers against the Dallas Cowboys on Sept. 8 in Cleveland.
"I'm not a perfect player," Cooper said. "Just because there's bumps in the road doesn't that you are bad at your job. Sometimes you got to go around them, sometimes you got to go through them, and I'm definitely going through. So yeah, to answer your question, I have had stretches like this before."
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The second game of this stretch, last Sunday's win at the Jacksonville Jaguars , Cooper had just two catches on nine targets for 16 yards. According to Pro Football Focus, he had two drops, which included a pass he couldn't bring in at the Jaguars 15 that would've given the Browns a first down.
The three drops Cooper has this season are tied with Moore for the most on the team. He's dropped 67 passes over the course of his career, although just 14 since being traded from the Dallas Cowboys to the Browns in March 2022.
"I just got to play better," Cooper said. "I mean, I don't look at the inch here, inch there. Yeah, it does play a factor sometimes. Just me knowing my game, knowing myself, just got to go out there and play my brand of football, play to my standard. I haven't been doing that the past couple of weeks, but, like I said, I've been motivated so it's time to get going, so yeah."
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Amari Cooper frustrated by slow start to Browns season with stats dip
