Kevin White Says He Brings More to the Table Than Amari Cooper
By Chase Ruttig
Dec 29, 2014; Memphis, TN, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers wide receiver Kevin White (11) celebrates after scoring a touchdown during the game against the Texas A&M Aggies in the 2014 Liberty Bowl at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Justin Ford-USA TODAY Sports
Much of the offseason talk in 2015 has been analysts debating over Amari Cooper and Kevin White as the biggest debate in football circles has been surrounding who is the best wide receiver prospect in the 2015 NFL Draft. Pundits, fans and anyone in between arguing over the upside of two players who both appear to be set for stardom in the NFL starting with their rookie seasons.
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However the two people who haven’t joined the debate during that time are the players themselves, until now that is as Kevin White answered questions on why he is the better prospect at wideout compared to the rest of the 2015 class, namely Alabama’s Cooper who appears to be just ahead of White as the consensus #1 WR leading into the final month before the draft.
Unsurprisingly, White disagrees with that opinion and thinks that he brings more to the table than his fellow draft prospect in Cooper even if he concedes the wideout is a very talented player in his own right. White touting his athletic ability to pump himself up as the player who should be the first wide receiver taken in the opening round of the 2015 NFL Draft.
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Making an appearance on Monday’s PFT on NBCSN show, White was asked to make the case of himself being better than Amari Cooper. White explaining that his role as the top dog on a weaker WVU team and his slight edge in athleticism makes him feel that he deserves a look over Cooper in many respects.
“Amari Cooper is a great receiver, a great competitor, but I think I bring a lot more to the table. He’s at Alabama with Nick Saban. They have a whole bunch of other tools that help him out where he’s not getting double covered. A lot of attention is not just strictly on Amari Cooper…On West Virginia it’s just ‘OK, let’s shut Kevin White down.’ They have a lot of attention toward me.”
White definitely has a case to make in that he had far more attention than Cooper, but you could also argue that Alabama opponents put an equal amount of attention on the #1 wide receiver in the SEC while also having better defense than what West Virginia played over the course of their season. Of course the Alabama machine gave Cooper plenty of opportunities to succeed, but the pass-heavy Mountaineers did the same for White by throwing the ball as much as any team in the nation in 2014.
The debate is going to wage on until the draft and likely beyond that as the duo of wideouts will be forever attached as two of the top names in the 2015 NFL Draft class. Both could very well have similar success, but if one becomes a bigger star than the other the comparisons between the two will continue long into their careers as whoever drafts one of the pair first will be hoping their guy outperforms the other to avoid any hindsight regrets. White is putting money on himself being the better prospect, and after being the guy at WVU you can’t blame him, but it will be up for NFL GM’s to decide in less than a month when the debate will reach a climax in the first round.