Pharoh Cooper
Height: 5’11 1/8″
Weight: 203
Arm: 32 1/4″
Hand: 9 1/8″
40-time: 4.63 (pro day)
NFL Comparison: Cecil Shorts, Kaelin Clay, Bruce Ellington

Scouting Notes:

– Was one of the most productive WRs in South Carolina Gamecock history and did so over the course of two seasons when the offense (as a whole) was pure garbage.

– Ranked 3rd all-time at SC in 2014 as a sophomore for single-season receiving yards (1136) behind Alshon Jeffery (1517) and Sidney Rice (1143); Ranked 9th all-time in his 2015 campaign (887).

– Captain at South Carolina and a noted team leader.

– Played almost completely out of the slot in college and we don’t have much tape to analyze his ability to get off of press with. There’s no evidence he’s poised to be any kind of dynamic X-receiver at the next level.

– Played in a stacked-style alignment very often, usually behind the line of scrimmage which allowed him longer time intervals to key off of the opposing DB’s positions and techniques … and still found natural separation infrequently.

– With that said, he did show versatility to line up in the backfield as a runner and gadget-player in the mold of a Randall Cobb, sometimes even throwing the football.

– Did not test explosively in Indy, had a horrible vertical (5th percentile per Mockdraftable) and a horrible broad jump (14th percentile).

– Speaking of mockdraftable, he might have the roughest-looking group of physical comps we’ve ever seen.

– In fairness, Cooper claims he was only “85%” at the combine due to a quad strain.

– Did not run a 40 at the combine and was measured in the low 4.6’s at his pro day. Not a dynamic athlete when looking at testing which is concerning given he isn’t a big-bodied weapon by any stretch.

– Smaller hands than you would like at 9 1/8″, not a natural snatcher of the football.

– Stronger than he looks with the ball in his hands and has a sort of elusiveness in the YAC-department that comes more from being powerfully limber than anything else – per Pro Football Focus, though, he forced a crazy 16 missed tackles on his 66 receptions in 2015.

– Had the 7th-worst on-field testing score at the combine per RosterWatch’s on-field grading system; shows a tendency on film to lack crispness and explosion into cuts.

– His best attribute may be body-control and adjustment ability with the football in the air which showed up in his gauntlet scores from the combine, but he is still not close to players like Josh Doctson or Tyler Boyd in this ability.

Fantasy Outlook: The comparison to Cecil Shorts represents what we see as Cooper’s reasonable upside, so he’s not a player we’ll be targeting in dynasty until late-round-flier territory unless the situation he falls to is stupendous. However, we’ve seen even in a player like Ty Montgomery, who is somewhat comparable to Cooper but faster with much bigger hands, that even a terrific “situation” doesn’t always lead to surefire fantasy relevance when such rawness is exhibited in the areas of route-running and fundamentals. When we add in the fact that Cooper is not an explosive athlete it makes him a tough sell in rookie drafts when upside players such as Keyarris Garrett, Malcolm Mitchell, Chris Moore and others can be had even later.

QUOTES FROM THE COMBINE

WHAT THINGS HELPED YOU EXCEL IN THE GREAT STEVE SPURRIER’S OFFENSE?
“I moved around a lot. Played four different positions on the field, in college. He moved me around a lot to try and find ways of getting me the ball. I believe that’s going to help me at the next level, being able to move around from the inside slot to the outside, go in the backfield and play Wildcat if I have to.”

WHAT WAS BEHIND SWITCHING FROM DEFENSIVE BACK TO WIDE RECEIVER?

“Coming out of high school I wanted to play defensive back. Coach Spurrier wanted me on offense, but I wanted to try DB first. About a week and a half into camp I wasn’t getting any reps at DB. I was like third string, still catching punts every day. Coach Spurrier came up to me and said, ‘I’m gonna try to put you on offense. The DB coaches said you probably won’t get no playing time this year. I said okay. I went to offense the next day, and just went from there.”

HOW DOES YOUR GAME TRANSFER TO SLOT?

“Being that I’m 200-plus I’m used to going across the middle and taking big hits from the linebackers. Getting around linebackers in the seam routes … Just quickness and vision. Just doing it for the last three years has helped me. And just being just tough, moving me around and going in motion — just moving around a lot, working through traffic and just being tough. And when the hits come, still making the catch.”

ON PLAYING FOR HIS EMINENCE, STEVE SPURRIER

“It was great playing under coach Spurrier. Coming out of high school I didn’t know much about him. Once I got to South Carolina I kind of started figuring out that he won the Heisman, and how great of a coach he was, just hearing about it. Some of the stuff he said, just practice hard — practice is going to translate to the game, so just practice hard.”

CHANGES DUE TO QB INJURIES, JUMBLE:

“It changed a little bit but not too much. Everybody at the quarterback position at practice was taking reps every day. So all the receivers were getting used to taking throws from each quarterback every day. It didn’t really change anything…”

ON BEING A LEADER AFTER THE BALL COACH BAILED

“It was kind of hard after coach Spurrier left out of nowhere. Everybody was kind of down, everybody was just waiting for next year — just kind of rebuild off next year. A lot of guys were still focused on the year. Some weren’t. As a leader at that time of the year, you just had to keep the guys together and try to just finish the year off strong. That’s all we could do — just try out best.”

HOW DOES PLAYING OTHER POSITIONS HELP GET THE Y.A.C.?

“Just experience. My freshman year I started at Wildcat quarterback. Then my sophomore year I started at receiver … When I catch the ball I just try to turn into a running back, when I’m trying to get yards. That’s the whole purpose of the game — just try to get extra yards every time you can.”

PATTERN YOUR GAME AFTER ANY RECEIVERS YOU IDOLIZED GROWING UP?

“Growing up I actually loved watching Percy Harvin play. Then my freshman year in college I started watching Randall Cobb a lot. I started liking his game.”