Amari Cooper's Strategic Trade to Buffalo Bills Enhances Wide Receiver Group

Amari Cooper's Trade to Buffalo Bills

The Buffalo Bills have pulled off a move to help their struggling wide receiver room, bringing in Amari Cooper via trade from the Cleveland Browns. The deal was first reported by Jordan Schultz of Fox Sports. Ian Rapoport came in with the details saying Cleveland gets Buffalo's third while the Bills get the Browns' sixth-round pick, but Buffalo will have the same number of picks it did to start the day. Buffalo also gets a 2026 seventh-rounder. The value equates to that of a third-round compensatory pick at the end of the round or an early fourth-round pick depending on where the teams end up.

Why Cooper Was the Ideal Choice

Cooper was on the short list of receivers we speculated the Bills could trade for last week. Here’s what I wrote then: As Buffalo Rumblings writer emeritus Dan Lavoie pointed out to me, “Cooper is as automatic as it gets. I know he turned 30 this year but the dude is as automatic as it gets. In nine years he averaged 80 catches, 1134 yards, 7 TDs.” The move should push Mack Hollins out of the starting lineup as soon as Cooper gets up to speed. Hollins has led the Bills in snaps at receiver but is the figurehead of a group that really can’t get separation from defenders outside of Khalil Shakir.

Cooper seemed like the best financial fit from the start for the salary cap-strapped Bills as we went over in early October. The Browns paid Cooper’s money upfront for the season, so the only remaining money Buffalo has to pay is the league minimum.

This is the latest in a series of in-season trades for general manager Brandon Beane, though most of those have come at the deadline. In 2023, Beane traded for Green Bay Packers cornerback Rasul Douglas on Halloween when Tre’Davious White was injured. In 2017, the Bills traded for receiver Kelvin Benjamin, a move that didn’t ultimately work out too well for Beane. (He also shipped receiver Zay Jones to the Oakland Raiders in 2019.)

This is the third time in his career Cooper has been traded. He began his NFL career with the Oakland Raiders before being dealt to the Dallas Cowboys in 2018. After 3.5 seasons with Dallas he was sent to the Cleveland Browns before the 2022 season. In case you want to get into the wayback machine, we’ve been covering Amari Cooper so long, we even have a 2015 NFL Draft scouting report for ya!