When the Buffalo Bills traded for Amari Cooper after their Week 6 Monday Night Football win over the New York Jets, it took the league by surprise. The Bills had taken control of the AFC East and they put themselves back into the win column after back-to-back losses, but Brandon Beane is always looking for ways to improve the Bills.
Buffalo acquired Cooper and a 2025 6th-round pick and sent the Cleveland Browns a 2025 3rd-round pick and a 2026 7th-round pick. Even though the Bills added a “true number-one receiver”, it certainly didn’t feel like it for the majority of the season. Cooper only recorded two touchdowns as a Bill and had just 20 receptions in the regular season once arriving to Buffalo.
He was a non-factor for the Bills in the playoffs as well, recording just six catches for 41 yards. Now granted, being traded in the middle of the season makes it hard for a player to adjust on the fly. In addition, Cooper also suffered a wrist injury in Week 8 that truly never healed and was even recommended for surgery.
Cooper is a pending free agent and it’s more likely that he’s out of Buffalo rather than brought back. However, Bills fans should not rule him out coming back to Orchard Park. At the same time, they should prepare for only seeing Cooper as a less-than-a-year rental.
4 teams who could steal Amari Cooper in free agency
Arizona Cardinals
Starting off with a wild card pick in the Arizona Cardinals, Cooper would have the chance to join a Cardinals team that took a big jump in the right direction last compared to 2023. Kyler Murray showed flashes of looking like his oldself and the Cardinals only had one 1,000+ receiving threat last year in tight end Trey McBride.
Even though Marvin Harrison Jr. showed promise moving forward, he didn’t exactly have the outstanding season that most fans were expecting. This could be due to the fact that teams had an advantage to take him out of the gameplan for the Cardinals because there were no other true threats at the wide receiver position.
Cooper joining the Cardinals gives them a true second threat at wide receiver and it would force a defense to have to go one-on-one with him or Harrison Jr.
Los Angeles Chargers
This kind of seems like a perfect match, considering the lack of weapons the Chargers have outside of Ladd McConkey. Pairing Cooper with Justin Herbert would help open up the Chargers’ offense and take some pressure off of their rushing attack. Los Angeles got lucky with McConkey after passing up on Malik Nabers in last year’s NFL Draft. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see LA make a run at Cooper.
Pittsburgh Steelers
I believe that this would be the least likely pairing, but Pittsburgh does need some help at the wide receiver spot. Despite how talented George Pickens is, there is a lot of growth for maturity with him. Cooper is a grown up and has the mentality of showing up and going to work. Maybe Pittsburgh should invest in Cooper to bring a veteran presence that is calm but can still be wildly productive.
New England Patriots
Even though Cooper made comments about finally going far in the playoffs, the Patriots are making good improvements so far with the hiring of Mike Vrabel as their new head coach. In addition, they also brought back Josh McDaniels as their new offensive coordinator to work with Drake Maye, who showed lots of promise in his rookie season.
Not only do the Patriots have their franchise quarterback and a culture-setting head coach, they also have well over $100 million in cap space to utilize, per overthecap.com. Cooper may only get one more bigger-sized contract in his career. The Patriots have the chance to give Maye a true number-one wideout to help him take the next step in his career.