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Like most of his Oakland Raiders teammates, wide receiver Amari Cooper had a disappointing 2017 season. He had just 48 catches for 680 yards, which were easily his lowest numbers in his first three years in the league. However, he was playing hurt for most of the year, as quarterback Derek Carr revealed recently.
Luckily, Cooper is set to get a fresh start with new head coach Jon Gruden. But as Charean Williams of ProFootballTalk reports, Cooper will need to prepare himself both physically and mentally, as Gruden has big plans in store for him next season.
“Oh, we think Cooper is going to be a great player,” Gruden said from the NFL Scouting Combine. “We think Amari is not only a great prospect, a great player, he’s a great person. He had a lot of injuries last year and that impacted him, but he’ll be the focal point of our pass offense. I hope he’s listening here today. I look forward to joining up with Amari Cooper. He’s got tremendous quickness. I think he’s smart. He’s versatile. He’s a gamer. He likes the bright lights. He’ll be the headliner in our offense.”
Cooper has certainly shown he’s capable of being the big-time player Gruden wants him to be. He had over 1,000 receiving yards in each of his first two seasons in the league prior to his injury-hit 2017 campaign.
When healthy, he has just about all the tools to be one of the top receivers in the game. Gruden obviously sees that and acknowledges that maximizing his star receiver's potential will be crucial to the team's success moving forward.
Although, Cooper’s still got some way to go to be considered one of the truly elite wideouts. He's still been unable to completely stamp the frustrating drops out of his game, and Gruden likely won’t stand for those same mistakes as well.
Cooper will need to show significant growth in that aspect of his game in order to live up to the high expectations Gruden has set for him next season.
