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Amari Cooper got healthy to play at the perfect time.
The Dallas Cowboys wide receiver returned to practice on Monday, taking the field with his teammates for the first since early August after dealing with pain in his heel due to plantar fascia. Though he didn't participate in every drill and still feels some amount of discomfort, Cooper told reporters following the session that this bout of plantar fasciitis is more manageable than those he suffered from earlier in his career.
“What I had before was worse than this and I was able to play on that,” he said, per ESPN's Todd Archer. “The plantar fasciitis I had before would really kind of bother me when I was directly cutting on that foot, but this one doesn’t.”
Cooper missed practice on August 12 with what was originally described as a heel strain, being listed as day-to-day on the injury report. It became clear shortly thereafter that he was afflicted by a more lingering injury, and Dallas confirmed as much by shutting him down indefinitely despite Cooper insisting his injury was of a minor nature. Coach Jason Garrett said last week that he was “on track” to play in Week 1.
The former top-five pick finished 2018 with 75 catches for 1005 yards and seven touchdowns, solid numbers that nevertheless fail to convey just how dynamic he was for Dallas after being acquired on October 22 from the Oakland Raiders. In just nine games with the Cowboys, he had 53 catches, 725 receiving yards, and six touchdowns, re-establishing himself as one of the most dangerous receivers in all of football.
