The Raiders have been expecting a breakout season from Amari Cooper, but thanks to inferior schemes and inexplicable drops, Cooper is entering his fourth year and still looking for that elite-receiver-in-the-league season.
At times, Cooper seems to catch everything in reach, but just when you think the Heyward-Bey syndrome is in full remission, Cooper’s hands tend to transform back to steel mallets and his best efforts to catch a pass become futile.
In the past, former Raiders quarterback Rich Gannon has suggested that Cooper’s drops are a mental issue, but this week Gannon said he thinks there is a physical element to Cooper’s drops, too.
“Jon Gruden told me that [Cooper] had his best two weeks of practice coming out of training camp,” Gannon said Thursday on ‘The Game Plan with JT The Brick’ podcast. “I think the conditioning is better. When the conditioning is where it needs to be I think you’ll see less drops, you’ll see less mental errors from him.”
Gannon’s theory makes sense, but doesn’t Cooper always show up to training camp in great shape? Every year, he reports to the team looking like he’s been blending nails into his protein shakes, so it’s an interesting idea to hear from Gannon.
Gannon didn’t go into any more detail, but it sounds like he might be hinting that Cooper never had Heyward-Bey syndrome in the first place. Maybe he’s saying it’s been something more similar to David Boston disease.
twitter: @raidersbeat
A fighter will lose punching speed if he was to bulk up. Cooper has been hitting the weights to fend off defenders. Maybe his heavier arms are causing a fraction of s second that throws hishand eye coordination off. T. Brown didn’t hit the weights.
Interesting observation, I can see how that would effect him. I think it was more mental tho, and also the scheme and the way they were using him.
I love the T. Brown reference too, he didn’t where gloves either!
This cute but Amari Cooper will always drop passes. He dropped passes at Alabama and he’s dropping them in Oakland. There is no “magic answer”, he is who he is. The Raiders either need to accept the drops as part of the Amari Cooper package or get rid of him.
Ruben brings up a god point and one I agree with cuz Coop has put on lots of muscle last few yrs.
Coop can lift weights to get bigger, but what I’ve heard MJ say is “it’s not the size of the dog in the fight that matters most, but the size of the fight in the dog.”
Just saying Coop seems a little soft, and more physical corners seem to cause him problems. Unless he changes I don’t think I’d pay him Top Dollar after this year.
Bottom line Cooper dropping passes has been the 1 consistent part of his game we have seen. Rich Gannon is more intelligent than 2 believe the bs he put out there. It has nothing 2 do with bulking up n mental being the thing is lil difficult 2 buy as that would b something u think would have been worked out. If it is something we must accept from his play then he shouldnt b around much longer n surely is not deserving of big contract but guarantee u teams will line up 2 offer him money just cuz teams r not as smart as they think, i mean McKenzie n Del Rio kept Crabtree, Cooper, n Roberts giving 2 of them new contracts n the trio became the worst in league every year in dropped passes while having tremendous receiver n special teams player in Andre Holmes whom they allowed 2 depart n he wasnt a huge contract guy but much better than those 3