You'll excuse Oakland Raiders franchise quarterback Derek Carr if he gets a little over-excited at the thought of playing alongside recent first-round pick and electrifying new offensive weapon, wide receiver Amari Cooper - Carr simply hasn't experienced the joys of tossing touchdown passes to a player of Cooper's caliber before.
"He [Cooper] is ridiculous in and out of his breaks," said Carr recently, while appearing on 95.7 The Game, via Raiders.com. "His style of play is perfect for this league. He's good at getting on toes and creating separation. He's good at when the ball is in his hands making those fast-twitch movements to make a guy go one way so he can take it to the house. It's just little things that honestly people don't even notice."
Carr isn't just enamored with Cooper's skill on the field though - it's his work ethic off of it that has the young signal-caller excited over both of their NFL futures.
"His work ethic is second to none," Carr said. "I was throwing with him as soon as mini-camp was over so we can get more reps in, and our plan was to throw a couple more times, but he texted me that night. He said, 'hey, let's throw at least three more times. I need to get this one route right.' Just him telling me that kind of stuff, it blew my mind."
It's been parroted repeatedly that Cooper, the former Alabama Crimson Tide standout, entered the 2015 NFL Draft process as the most NFL-ready receiver available. That led some to conclude that maybe his ceiling wasn't as high as some of the other wideouts in the draft, like West Virginia's Kevin White, now with the Bears, or Louisville's DeVante Parker, now a Dolphin. Instead, Cooper has reportedly been turning heads already at Raiders offseason work and has looked every part the dynamic offensive weapon the Raiders and GM Reggie McKenzie and head coach Jack Del Rio hoped he could be when they took him with the fourth-overall pick in the draft - he certainly doesn't lack for confidence either, as he said last week that his message to Raider Nation at this point was, "Be ready to just win, baby."
In fact, according to Carr, the only the only possible impediment to Cooper busting out and having a dominant rookie season is Carr.
"I think the sky's the limit for him, obviously," Carr said. "Hopefully I just get the ball into his hands so he can make the plays."
