FRISCO, Texas – Wide receiver Amari Cooper didn't take long – two short practices on this bye week – to show Cowboys coaches and teammates his commitment to making a quick transition in a new offense.
Head coach Jason Garrett said Cooper has been a quick study and looked comfortable in individual and team drills.
"He's a football guy, there's no question about that," Garrett said. "He knows football, he understands football, he picks things up quickly. He broke the huddle with us, ran plays, didn't seem to have a lot of issues. There will be a lot more stuff coming as we go, here, but he's certainly into it, he's engaged, football smart and handled the work well (Wednesday)."
Here are more early impressions of Cooper from Cowboys players and coaches:
Offensive coordinator Scott Linehan:
"To me, you can't have enough playmakers on your team. We feel like he's a guy that can do some of the stuff you want to do on the outside part of the field. He's been versatile in his career. He doesn't just play one position, can move around. So he's got a nice history of being a big-time playmaker all the way from high school days. This guy has a knack of making the big play and I think he can add that to our offense."
Wide receivers coach Sanjay Lal:
"He's an intense listener, so when you're coaching him or watching film he'll say, 'Can you rewind that again? Why are you thinking this?' There's good conversation about why we're doing what we're doing and not just, 'OK, I'll do it.' I like that part about him."
Wide receiver Cole Beasley:
"He's definitely got juice and we knew (about him) before. That's why they made the deal. Guys have seen clips of him making plays before and know what type of player he is. It's some extra juice added the offense.
"(The bye week) is huge because we can kind of go back to the basics and then learn fundamentals on how we run our routes here and just little things that we do with Sanjay as a technical aspect. He can kind of get all that stuff in, whereas if he would've come in (the week of a game) it would have just been learning the offense more than anything. He can do both now because we have the bye week. That'll help him a lot."
