Amari Cooper was excellent for the Cleveland Browns when he joined the team at the beginning of last season, surpassing 1,000 receiving yards for the fifth time in his career — and the elite wide receiver has a very interesting way of improving his skills on the field.

Cooper has developed a love for chess, and his curiosity become a hobby, which has helped the 29-year-old excel in his career, per Chris Easterling of the Akron Beacon Journal.

“I think the biggest one for me is when I'm playing chess, I try to never play the person who I'm playing,” Cooper said. “I'm always playing the position on the board. There's always a best move to be played. The way I parallel that with football, it's just like, it doesn't matter who's in front of me, whatever my assignment is, I have to execute it in the best possible way.”

Playing chess is a very interesting way to improve your on-field skills — but it seems it has worked for the prolific receiver.

“He's kind of, not kind of, he is my unicorn at that position,” QwikRecruiting founder/CEO Tyler Siskey told Easterling. “One, he's immensely talented obviously. But the mental side is elite and probably his approach to playing the position's better than anybody I've been around, and I've been some great ones that are still playing.”

Cooper is 17th amongst active players with 595 receptions and 13th in receiving yards with 8,237. His 55 receiving touchdowns are 11th among active NFL players. In his first season with the Browns, Cooper amassed 78 catches for 1,160 yards and nine scores.

“The Scriptures say, ‘broad is the way that leads to destruction,' meaning if everybody is going this way, then you probably want to go that way,” he said ahead of his second year in Cleveland.

“I kind of pride myself on that. Not only just being different, but trying to be different in the right way, in the logical way.”

Expect another big season from Amari Cooper with the Cleveland Browns in 2023.