When the Cleveland Browns open training camp with a July 22-30 stay at the Greenbrier in West Virginia, wide receiver Amari Cooper expects to be 100 percent healthy again “God willing.”

Cooper played through an injury over the final five games of the 2022 season, then had core-muscle surgery in February. Most of his offseason has been consumed by rehabilitation work, but he made it back on the field for some 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills in the final two weeks of the Browns’ spring program.

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“Just to come out here and be able to feel good again, it’s a great feeling,” Cooper said. “You never really want to play hurt. It’s not very pleasant to play hurt, but you got to do what you got to do.”

The former Alabama All-American led Cleveland with 78 receptions for 1,160 yards and nine touchdowns in 2022, despite being hampered by the injury “a lot down the stretch. Like I said before, it wasn’t very pleasant to play through it, but it’s just a part of the game. But it definitely affected me.”

Cooper expects the 2023 season to be different for Cleveland than the 2022 campaign, when the Browns went 7-10 and missed the playoffs for the 19th time in 20 seasons.

The difference will start at quarterback. Deshaun Watson started the final six games of the 2022 season for Cleveland. But the three-time Pro Bowler hadn’t played since Jan. 3, 2021, when he took the field for the first time for the Browns on Dec. 4, 2022. Watson had practiced for three weeks before making his Cleveland debut after serving an NFL suspension.

“He looks in a bit of a better groove,” Cooper said of Watson as the Browns’ offseason program wound down. “Just having that long layoff, of course, you’re going to lose some form of rhythm. But he looks like he’s really getting that back. …

“He’s definitely getting more comfortable, getting his rhythm back, looking like Deshaun.”

With Nick Chubb as the top ball-carrier, Cleveland ranked sixth in rushing yards in the NFL in 2022. But the Browns came in 22nd among the league’s 32 teams in passing yards.

In addition to returning its top three wide receivers from 2022 – Cooper, Donovan Peoples-Jones and rookie David Bell — Cleveland obtained former second-round draft choice Elijah Moore in a trade with the New York Jets and used its first selection in the 2023 NFL Draft on Tennessee’s Cedric Tillman to bolster its WR group.

“The vibe has been pretty good overall,” Cooper said. “Even the other position groups are seeing it. A lot of plays are being made out there coming from the receiving position. It looks good so far. …

“We got a lot of threats in the receiver room now.”

A less-heralded acquisition than Moore or Tillman, 10-year veteran Marquise Goodwin signed as a free agent with Cleveland in March after 27 receptions for 387 yards and four touchdowns in 13 games for the Seattle Seahawks last season.

Even though Goodwin will turn 33 during the 2023 season, Cooper said he remains fast.

“It’s going to do a lot,” Cooper said about the addition of the veteran wide receiver. “I’m already seeing it. First of all, Deshaun loves throwing the vertical passes down field, so I know he’s going to throw them. And Goodwin, he isn’t just fast, but he’s a football player. He knows how to track the ball. He knows how to run those deep balls, so I think he’s going to be phenomenal for us, for sure.”

The Browns open training camp sooner than most teams because Cleveland will kick off the NFL’s preseason against the New York Jets in the annual Hall of Fame Game on Aug. 3 in Canton, Ohio.

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