WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.VA. — Billy Napier was still just an analyst on Nick Saban's staff when Amari Cooper showed up on the University of Alabama campus for a recruiting camp in June 2011.

"I can still remember he was the wide receiver from Miami with the blue pants on," Napier, now the head coach at the University of Florida, told the Beacon Journal in a phone interview. "He just put on a show that day, and he was relatively an unknown at that point. So Amari was a guy that I'm not exactly sure, but I think maybe he was a little bit banged up as a junior (in 2010) and that camp circuit … he went on a little bit of a run there and traveled the country and became known as one of the best receivers in the entire country."

A dozen years later, Cooper's no longer one of the best high school receivers in the country. He's even passed the point of being one of the best collegiate receivers, which he was as a Heisman Trophy finalist and Biletnikoff Award winner in his final season at Alabama in 2014.

At this point, Cooper is going into his ninth season as one of the best, if at times undervalued, receivers in the NFL. It's going to be his second season with his third team — the Browns — coming off his fifth 1,000-yard receiving season as a pro.

Cooper, though, may be one of a kind. He certainly is to those who have been around him.

Former Alabama football recruiter: Amari Cooper, a 'unicorn' in ways not defined by stats

"He's kind of, not kind of, he is my unicorn at that position," QwikRecruiting founder/CEO Tyler Siskey, who was the recruiting coordinator at Alabama from 2013-14, said in a phone interview. "One, he's immensely talented obviously. But the mental side is elite and probably his approach to playing the position's better than anybody I've been around, and I've been some great ones that are still playing."

For his career, he's 17th amongst active players with 595 receptions and 13th in receiving yards with 8,236 yards, while his 55 receiving touchdowns are 11th among his active peers. A year ago, in his first season in Cleveland, Cooper had 78 catches, 1,160 yards and nine TDs.

The stats, though, aren't what makes Cooper a "unicorn." That's even to the 29-year-old himself.

"Not to toot my own horn, but I think it's pretty accurate," Cooper said in an interview with the Beacon Journal in June. "I like that. … The Scriptures say, 'broad is the way that leads to destruction,' meaning if everybody is going this way, then you probably want to go that way. I kind of pride myself on that. Not only just being different, but trying to be different in the right way, in the logical way."

A love of chess helps Amari Cooper become the NFL's best route runner

The Cooper Way, if you will. It's it's own unique pathway, which is exactly what you would come to expect from a player who is renown for being one of, if not the most dedicated and precise route runners in the NFL.

That trait is just what you would expect from someone who has developed the love for chess. What started as a curiosity became a hobby, and that hobby helped Cooper to grow in his athletic career.

"I think the biggest one for me is when I'm playing chess, I try to never play the person who I'm playing," Cooper said. "I'm always playing the position on the board. There's always a best move to be played. The way I parallel that with football, it's just like, it doesn't matter who's in front of me, whatever my assignment is, I have to execute it in the best possible way."

Billy Napier saw Amari Cooper as a 'student of the game' at Alabama

Few can appreciate that more than Napier. Between being an analyst for Saban in 2011 and entering his second year as the Florida head coach this fall, he was the receivers coach for Alabama from 2013-16.

Those first two seasons back with the Crimson Tide reunited Napier with the "wide receiver from Miami with the blue pants on." A decade later, he can pinpoint why it's no surprise a love of chess and a dedication to precision in route running coexist within Cooper.

"That attention to detail, I mean, he's always kind of been that guy," Napier said. "I think, really bright, you know, you knew he was smart. He was very reserved, very to himself, very quiet, especially early on in his career. I just think the guy was always working on his craft. He was a student of the game, the nuances of press releases, top-of-the-route transition, and the entire route tree inside and outside."

'Elite' skills have defined Amari Cooper since Alabama

Cooper spent three seasons at Alabama before being the No. 4 overall pick by the Oakland Raiders in 2015. In some ways, the person and the player who emerged from the Tuscaloosa football machine is the same one who entered it.

Siskey — who also worked with NFL receivers A.J. Brown, D.K. Metcalf and Cooper's new Browns teammate Elijah Moore during a stint at Ole Miss from 2018-19 — believes the elite traits that have led Cooper to four Pro Bowl appearances were already forming with the Crimson Tide.

"It was just, his body from a physical standpoint, his body control and his one-step change of direction, which is two of the most critical factors I think in when you're playing the position, was off the charts," Siskey said. "On top of that, he did so much film work and he did so much work on his craft, that he took an elite skill and made it better if that's possible. Like I said, he's kind of my unicorn."

The Cooper who arrived at Alabama in 2012, though, wouldn't have recognized the Cooper who played the final five games for the Browns last season. Despite suffering a core muscle injury prior to the Week 14 loss at Cincinnati, he did not miss a game down the stretch, including a three-catch, 105-yard, three-touchdown performance in a Week 17 win at Washington.

After the game, Cooper spoke about how he wouldn't have necessarily been able to do that early in his college career. He points to the season opener of his sophomore season in 2013 against Virginia Tech as where it all changed.

"I didn't have my best game, but it was because I was hurt, mentally and physically," Cooper recalled. "What I mean by that is, I was already defeated mentally going to the game because I knew I wasn't 100%. So I figured, hey, being that I'm not 100%, then I can't play my best, I can't play the best game that I could play. I knew I would be hurt for a couple more weeks, and what I really wanted was to not play. I didn't want to play until I was healthy."

Amari Cooper's approach to injuries changed thanks to a benching

So Cooper didn't, but it wasn't his choice. Instead, it was Saban who essentially benched him.

That created a whole different feeling inside of Cooper, who still didn't reclaim his full-time starter's role immediately.

"I realized those couple weeks that I got benched that this is not what I really want," Cooper said. "And what's funny is Coach Saban, he's a very fair coach. … I was like, I never want that to happen to me again. I never want to give a guy an opportunity when I can play. I might be hurt, but I can play. I never want to give a guy an opportunity because that's how jobs get taken."

Last year marked the fifth time in eight NFL seasons in which Cooper's played every regular-season game. Two other times — in 2018 when he was traded from the Raiders to the Dallas Cowboys, and with the Cowboys in 2021 — he missed just one game, while he missed just two games in 2017.

Cooper had surgery for the injury in February. He was a spectator for much of the Browns' offseason program, although he did get into team drills for one minicamp practice and has been working out regularly with quarterback Deshaun Watson in the span between the end of the minicamp in June and Saturday's first training camp workout.

Amari Cooper acknowledges there's 'two sides' to him

While Cooper wasn't able to fully participate in the team's offseason program, he remained fully engaged in meetings and with his teammates on the field. He was a regular source of knowledge for the mostly younger group of Browns receivers, offering pointers when necessarily.

There are times, though, when the quiet introvert comes out in Cooper. Find him in the locker room in those moments, and he's likely to have the hood of his sweatshirt pulled over his head and his face buried in a game on his phone.

It's the yin and the yang of Cooper.

"There's definitely two sides to me," Cooper said. "I mean, everybody would probably tell you that. Some days I'm the guy who comes in and I don't want to be bothered. And other days I'm the guy who is sociable and gregarious. So I think that dynamic allows people to understand that we do come from a common place and we are just alike. But at the same time, they can see that there's something different about me."

Cooper wouldn't be a unicorn if he wasn't unique.

Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on Twitter at @ceasterlingABJ.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: 'Unicorn': Amari Cooper's skills go beyond stats for Cleveland Browns