Amari Cooper's message to younger Cleveland Browns receivers: 'Follow that process'

WHITE SULPHER SPRINGS, W.Va. — Amari Cooper was already one of the older receivers on the Browns roster. That was even before Marquise Goodwin was placed on the non-football illness list by the team on Friday with blood clots.

The 29-year-old Cooper is three years younger than Goodwin, who is 32 and a 10-year veteran. However, he's four years older than almost everyone else in the receiving corps, save for 30-year-old Jakeem Grant Sr.

More than that, the former No. 4 overall pick in the 2015 draft is the most accomplished of the group. That's what four Pro Bowls and five 1,000-yard receiving seasons do for a player among his younger, less-established peers.

It's why, when receiver Elijah Moore was acquired from the New York Jets in March, one of the first things he said was that he was looking forward to learning from Cooper, whom he had looked up to since he was growing up in South Florida. Once he got that chance, it met his expectations.

“It's been cool," Moore said during May's OTAs. "I'm getting to learn his personality more. A quiet dude but definitely has a lot to say. … I could tell he's super smart and he loves football so I ain't really get to see him do too much, he's getting himself, but as far as a person, I feel like he's super cool.”

That kind of responsibility has fallen on Cooper ever since the Browns acquired him from the Dallas Cowboys in March 2022. In fact, in some ways, the situation has improved for him as they go through the early stages of his second training camp with the team.

A year ago, Grant was also on the roster, but he suffered a season-ending Achilles tear early in training camp. That left Cooper surrounded with mostly players who had no more than three seasons of NFL experience under their belts.

Cooper fought through a late-season core muscle injury that required him to get surgery in February, but he did not miss any games. He was a full participant in the first training camp practice Saturday, but what was termed by general manager Andrew Berry as a "minor tweak" late in Sunday's practice is expected to be a day-to-day situation.

That was a brief hiccup after a first day on which Browns coach Kevin Stefanski raved about what he's seen from Cooper.

"He looks great," Stefanski said Saturday. "Physically he looks great. He's in a really good spot mentally. He's got a great grasp of what we do. He worked really hard in this break just now to make sure he's ready to roll."

Even if Cooper has to miss a short amount of practice time, it's no different than during the offseason program. At that time, he was essentially limited in what he could do while recovering, turning him into a player-coach of sorts.

Cooper's been as much leader by example and leader by words. His growth in that regard coincides with principals he learned while playing for Nick Saban at the University of Alabama, principles that have been popularly referred to as "The Process."

"So 'The Process' to me is, you get this Rubik's Cube and you know what the end goal is — you're trying to solve it," Cooper told the Beacon Journal in June. "You're trying to have every side on its color, every square on its color, and so that's the end goal. So with football, the end goal is a Super Bowl, the end goal is a championship, but the process is, when you're solving that Rubik's Cube, there's a certain algorithm you have to follow."

The ultra-cerebral Cooper summed up the similarities in the devotion to the absolute minute details. It's about technique, the dedication to precision in each route or focus on each part of the catch process.

That brings Cooper back to the Rubik's Cube analogy. In order to solve the puzzle, you have to follow the process.

"You're not going to just pick it up and solve it," Cooper said. "I've tried it before. You have to solve it step by step. You have to get the yellow side first and then you have to get the T and then you have to, so you go through a process to get to the main goal. If you don't follow that process, you'll never get there."

Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on Twitter at @ceasterlingABJ

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Amari Cooper to young Browns wide receivers: 'Follow that process'