Amari Cooper will be on the field on Saturday when the Cleveland Browns take on the Houston Texans in a Wild Card matchup.
Cooper has missed the past two games with a heel injury. He was a late scratch against the New York Jets and sat out last week along with a chunk of the other starters for a meaningless finale against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Cooper assured that if the Week 18 matchup meant anything, he would have been on the field. The Browns were locked into the No. 5 seed. He did not practice on Tuesday or Wednesday but will be ready to go to face the Texans.
“It’s getting better every day,” Cooper said on Wednesday, January 10. “I’m running around now. So it’s just a typical injury that you have to work through.”
Browns WR Amari Cooper Expects ‘Heightened’ Postseason Experience
Despite missing a pair of games, Cooper put together a career year. He collected 72 receptions for a career-high 1,250 receiving yards, earning the fifth Pro Bowl nod of his career. He nearly doubled the production of the next receiver on the Browns roster, Elijah Moore, who recorded 640 yards.
This is Cooper’s fourth trip to the postseason but first with the Browns. He went once with the then-Oakland Raiders in 2017 and made a pair of appearances with the Dallas Cowboys.
“Everything is just a little bit more heightened,” Cooper said of postseason play. “Throughout the course of the season, you make a mistake, you drop a ball, something happens, you got more plays. You know what I mean? But this is win or go home. So the margin for error is much smaller.”
Browns WR Amari Cooper Set Record in Last Matchup With Texans
Cooper was unstoppable the last time the Browns saw the Texans on Christmas Eve. He caught 11 passes for 265 yards — a franchise single-game record.
“Records are meant to be broken. At the end of the day, it’s just numbers. I don’t take it for granted, but it’s the past,” Cooper said.
Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans credited Cooper for his success and knows his team needs to shore things up if they want to slow down the Browns.
“Amari [Cooper] is a great player,” Ryans said. “Made a ton of great catches, unbelievable catches in that game, and we were in position. We’ve just got to be able to finish and make a play on the ball.”
Cooper isn’t exactly sure how the Texans will mix things up this time around in an attempt to slow him down. However, he’s not too worried about it.
“Depends. It’s all situational,” Cooper said. “I mean, Houston, they’re not really a man team, so I think the chances of them using a player to shadow me is a little bit less than what it would be if they were a man team. But you never know for the playoffs. Teams game plan and they’re willing to do whatever they have to do to win. We’ll just see. But from past experiences, obviously if you’re dominating, they’re going to make changes.”
Cooper and the Browns are a 1.5-point road favorite for the playoff matchup.
