Browns receivers: ‘These guys all really do revere Amari Cooper’

The Cleveland Browns have had a difficult time getting quarterback Deshaun Watson and wide receivers Amari Cooper, Jerry Jeudy and Elijah Moore on the field at the same time at practice. Could it happen in a preseason game?

Cleveland coach Kevin Stefanski said the Browns starters “should expect to play” in Saturday night’s preseason finale against the Seattle Seahawks.

The three receivers have been in and out with injuries during training camp and Watson is returning from a shoulder injury that kept him from playing in Cleveland’s final eight games of the 2023 season.

None of the four players appeared in either of the two previous preseason games.

Obtained in a trade from the Denver Broncos in March, Jeudy said he didn’t expect the lack of practice time together to affect the Browns’ passing attack adversely when the regular season arrived on Sept. 8.

I think with the players we got here, I think that won’t slow us down at all,” Jeudy said. “You know, we are very smart players, understand the game, understand the fundamentals of football, so I feel like that won’t hurt us at all. Once Game 1 comes by, hopefully, we all on the field together.”

Selected from Alabama with the 15th choice in the 2020 NFL Draft, Jeudy had 54 receptions for 758 yards and two touchdowns in his fourth season with the Broncos, who shipped him to Cleveland for fifth- and sixth-round picks in the 2024 draft.

Jeudy came to the Browns a year after they had obtained Moore in a trade with the New York Jets and two years after they acquired Cooper in a trade with the Dallas Cowboys.

“It’s definitely a phenomenal thing that we have all sort of receivers out there, and we’re all kind of cut from the same cloth, I would say,” Cooper said. “We’re all South Florida guys. We’re all really good route-runners. We all have been playing football since a very young age, have been running routes since a very young age, so we kind of have a natural feel for the position.

“I think we’ll definitely feed off each other in a good way, and it could definitely be some fireworks out there this year.”

Unlike Jeudy and Moore, whose careers haven’t been as productive as pre-draft evaluations indicated, Cooper is a five-time Pro Bowler with seven 1,000-yard seasons, including a career-high 1,250 receiving yards in 2023.

“Amari’s the OG when it comes to wide receivers,” Stefanski said. “They all look up to him. They all respect him. When he speaks, everybody listens. They watch how he works. He doesn’t have to say much, but the way he works really factors into our young guys. … Jerry, being an Alabama kid; Elijah, being from Florida, these guys all really do revere Amari, and I think you see that in how they work especially.”

Cooper was an All-American wide receiver for the Crimson Tide four years before Jeudy was.

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“He helps me a lot of ways,” Jeudy said of Cooper. “You know, Amari’s not really a vocal guy. You just got to watch what he do, so I just watch everything he do, how he run his routes. He give me little details and stuff. … I just be watching him, seeing how he moves, seeing how he runs his routes and stuff like that. If I have a question, I ask him. Sometimes he critiques me on things and stuff like that.”

Cleveland plays the Seahawks at 9 p.m. CDT Sunday at Lumen Field in Seattle. NFL Network will televise the game.

The Browns kick off their regular-season schedule against the Dallas Cowboys at 3:25 p.m. Sept. 8 at Cleveland Browns Stadium in Cleveland.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.