Sometimes you see players get after the ball when they win a draw and you think, “Oh, that’s aggressive.” And then you see a player like Cooper, and you realize your adjective was not strong enough. Low to the ground and compact like a sprinter van that got hit with a shrink ray, Cooper moves to the ball with real purpose. Although he can win the ball to his wings, Cooper is also very comfortable slinging the ball out to open field in front of himself to turn any draw into a contest of who wants the ball more. He’s going to be one of the tougher draw men in the ISL this spring, and he has all the tools to stay on and be a very disruptive SSDM if needed as well. You can’t teach hustle; hustle is a skill.

Nate Cooper was my favorite fogo at Showtime who did not make the All-Star Game. He is undersized, but he has the kind of gamer-hustler mentality that makes you root for him. He never backs down, flies after ground balls, and bothers ballcarriers with disruptive checks when he does not win the draw cleanly. The numbers at the dot backed it up, too. He posted strong results in team play thanks to his hand speed and quick exits.