The Cleveland Browns open the NFL season on Sunday with two former Alabama All-Americans at wide receiver – one they traded for and one they, apparently, tried to trade.
Across the line from Amari Cooper and Jerry Jeudy, another former Alabama standout, Trevon Diggs, will be trying to stop the pass-catchers as a Dallas Cowboys cornerback.
Cooper and Diggs were not teammates at Alabama, but they were teammates in 2020 and 2021 with the Cowboys.
“We have a good relationship,” Cooper said. “He’s a great player. Very, very dynamic player. Has great ball skills. Has great IQ for the position.
“I’m excited for the challenge. This is why I play the game. This is what I love most about the game — to go up against the best and to challenge yourself. This is why I fell in love with the game of football. It’s going to be a great matchup, for sure.”
Jeudy and Diggs were teammates for three seasons at Alabama.
“It’s always fun going against Diggs,” Jeudy said. “He’s smart, got great ball skills, very competitive. We’ve been going against each other since college, so I know the stuff he’s great at, he knows the stuff that I’m good at. It’s going to be fun. It’s going be a fun matchup.”
The Browns obtained Cooper in a trade with Dallas in 2022, and he’s had 150 receptions for 2,410 yards and 14 touchdowns for Cleveland. But reports this offseason indicated the Browns were willing to trade Cooper to take unhappy wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk off the San Francisco 49ers’ hands.
“At the end of the day, it’s neither here nor there,” Cooper said about the possible trade. “I’m just focused on playing my best football in Week 1.”
Cleveland’s season-opener will unveil the Browns’ offense featuring quarterback Deshaun Watson and wide receivers Cooper, Jeudy and Elijah Moore.
“I don’t have a crystal ball in front of me,” Cooper said, “but the expectation is, obviously, to go out there and execute the plays that’s being called, for us to play our brand of football, for us to be extremely locked in and put our best foot forward.”
Jeudy came aboard in an offseason trade with the Denver Broncos.
“I think this is the perfect spot for me,” Jeudy said. “Just what offensive coordinator we got, the quarterback we got, and I feel like the guys we got here just are going to make me a better player. …
“Hopefully, things go off as we planned. Can’t predict what’s going to happen, but, you know, I’m going to do my part.”
Since entering the NFL as the fourth pick in the 2015 draft, Cooper has posted seven 1,000-yard receiving seasons and made the Pro Bowl five times. Jeudy was the 15th pick of the 2020 NFL Draft, and he averaged 763 receiving yards in four seasons with the Broncos, with a high of 972 receiving yards in 2022.
“I definitely got to prove something to myself,” Jeudy said. “My first few years is not exactly how I planned it out to be due to a lot of different situations and circumstances.”
The Cowboys and Browns kicked off at 3:25 p.m. CDT Sunday at Huntington Bank Field in Cleveland. FOX will televise the game.
“When you grew up as a kid watching football, these are the games that you tend to watch,” Cooper said. “The games that are prime time, the games that everybody’s watching.
“As a football player, as a guy who’s been playing football my whole life, it’s always very, very exciting, that first game of the season, because at this point, you haven’t played real football in almost half a year. So, yeah, very excited.”
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