Amari Cooper ready for 'different feel in the game' with Browns' Deshaun Watson at quarterback

BEREA, Ohio – Amari Cooper hadn't worked with Deshaun Watson much since August. So there were parts of the quarterback's game with which the Browns receiver needed to get back up to speed.

One of the biggest is the timing Watson has with his pass catchers.

"He has great anticipation, but really you attribute that to his hard work," Cooper said Thursday. "He's real good at, 'OK, this is my receiver. I'm going to look at film of him to see how he runs routes' so that he can know how to anticipate throwing you certain routes. "

That anticipation is why there's such as anticipation among the Browns' offensive skill players to have Watson back under center after the conclusion of his 11-game suspension. That anticipation for them comes to a head on Sunday in Houston, where he makes his first regular-season start for the Browns against the Texans.

Cooper and the other receivers had been able to work on the field with Watson the previous two weeks. However, because of the way the practice reps were divided up between him and the starter for those two games — Jacoby Brissett — most of the real work was done off to the side.

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This week, though, Watson has received all of the first-team reps one would expect for the starting quarterback to receive. That has given him a chance to reconnect with Cooper, who has been impressed with what he has seen.

"Deshaun Watson, he's just a great quarterback, does a lot of things well," Cooper said. "The accuracy we alluded to earlier, throws a great ball. Easy to catch. Obviously it's going to be exciting to play with him in an actual game. But as far as practice, we've practiced with him for a while now, as far as like OTAs and stuff like that. So I guess it'll be a different feel in the game, and that's what I'm excited about."

The transition period actually started for Watson when he first returned to the team facility on Oct. 10. At that time, all he was permitted to do with his teammates was to participate in meetings.

Watson, though, believes those meetings were the point at which he began to re-establish himself with the receivers. Specifically, it allowed him to know what had been the status quo in terms of communication between quarterback and receiver under Brissett, which gave him a blueprint as to what he needed to do with them.

“My biggest thing when I first got back in the building is hearing how Jacoby talked to them and hearing how they watched film and hearing how Amari, DPJ (Donovan Peoples-Jones), D-Bell (David Bell) and all of the other receivers and tight ends talk to Jacoby and what they are saying," Watson said. "Then whenever my opportunity came for this week to step into that starting role, I didn’t want to really change anything too much.

"Me and Jacoby talked with those guys, we watched tape after practice and they are seeing what I am seeing. I am able to stand up in the meetings and let them know what I see. If they have anything or if they see anything different, then let’s be able to have that communication and that relationship where we can talk and adapt and not be so much of robots in the system."

Cooper has been through a quarterback carousel plenty of times through his career. Whether it's been with the Raiders, Cowboys or, now, the Browns, he has had to play with a number of different passers in a relatively short amount of time.

So Cooper's familiar with what it takes to adjust to a different quarterback, even during a season. In this case, it's going from 11 games of catching passes from Brissett to catching them from Watson over the final six games.

"Obviously, the timing is a bit different," Cooper said. "But you get used to that as a receiver catching from a whole bunch of different quarterbacks. Usually with the quarterbacks, they're more comfortable doing certain routes than others. So I guess that's one of the biggest adjustments."

Cooper has had success this season catching from Brissett. He's tied for 15th in the league in receptions with 57, while he's 13th in receiving yards with 792.

Where Cooper's thrived as well as anyone has been on third down. His 18 third-down catches are tied for fifth in the league, while his 310 yards on third-down catches are fourth in the league.

Cooper, though, isn't concerned about those numbers dropping with a different quarterback throwing him the ball.

"Obviously they're two different quarterbacks, but they both throw an easy-to-catch ball," Cooper said. "Both throw an easy-to-catch ball. I don't know, obviously they're different, but the ball is easy to catch from both of them. So I mean, not too much."

Contact Chris at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. On Twitter: @ceasterlingABJ

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Browns' Amari Cooper sees a different feel with Deshaun Watson at QB