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The Arizona Cardinals finally got their first round draft pick set to sign his new contract, as they agreed to terms on a four-year, $14.55 million deal on Sunday. He missed the first few days of training camp, but that wasn't enough for him to be moved down the depth chart apparently.
According to what head coach Bruce Arians said on Sirius XM NFL, Cooper will open with the first team when he starts practicing.
He will first, though, have to complete the conditioning test in front of the whole team. (I will note that this is not a big deal because the entire team ran the conditioning test in front of the entire team....and the media, too. Everyone knows who does well or not so well.)
The team is naturally excited to have him finally on board. General manager Steve Keim almost glowed as he talked about him. He said that, based on initial impressions during the offseason work he has already done, Cooper could even be "better than advertised." That is pretty huge considering he already has been compared to Alan Faneca, who is a sure fire future Hall of Famer.
One recent breakdown by Seth Cox also shows that he just might be like Faneca.
"He has spent a lot of time here in the offseason," Keim said, via the team's official web site. "He spent a lot of time with Harold Goodwin and Larry Zierlein, our two offensive line coaches. He's a sharp kid. He's already picked up the majority of our playbook. There are obviously a few wrinkles he's going to have to make adjustments on, but we don't feel Coop will be too far behind at all."
There are big things expected from the rookie Cooper. We will get to start seeing him as early as Monday.
More from Revenge of the Birds:
- Arizona Cardinals training camp: 10 observations from Day 2
- NFL training camp 2013: Ryan Lindley making progress, compared to Kelly Holcomb
- NFL training camp 2013: Kick returner for Arizona Cardinals still an unknown
- NFL training camp 2013: Arizona Cardinals to use double punt returners
- These Arizona Cardinals aren't the Arizona Cardinals you remember
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