When the Buffalo Bills opted to let Gabe Davis walk in free agency, and then trade away Stefon Diggs, they let a ton of wide receiver production go out the door. Diggs was consecutively a 1,000+ yard receiver year in and year out. Davis had his moments where he was Josh Allen’s go-to guy in different moments of the season.
It was safe to say that the Bills were going to take a little bit of a step back as offensive coordinator Joe Brady wanted to implement an “everybody eats” type of offense where everyone got involved. While it worked the first three weeks of the season, it has since come back to inconsistency the last couple of weeks.
Even with winning this past Monday night against the New York Jets, the Bills still monitored the wide receiver market and once the news broke about the Jets trading for Davante Adams, Buffalo needed to make a move sooner than later for a receiver themselves. Well, Brandon Beane delivered by making breaking news of trading for Amari Cooper from the Cleveland Browns for practically nothing.
Pairing Cooper with Josh Allen is the perfect fit for the type of offense that the Bills run. Not to mention, it provides a major upgrade to the receiver room. It’s not that the Bills had horrendous receivers, because Khalil Shakir is a solid slot receiver. The issue is that the Bills wouldn’t be able to be successful down the stretch of the season if all they had was Shakir at the receiver spot.
Amari Cooper adds value to the Bills' WR room through his 2024 receiving stats
With the Bills acquiring Cooper, they are adding a player that is already the team’s leading receiver and he has yet to even have a practice with the Bills.
Through six weeks of the season, Cooper’s stats in Cleveland have been underwhelming. However, we can’t blame him because look at how the Browns’ offense was set up. Now he gets an massive upgrade at quarterback from Deshaun Watson to Josh Allen.
With Watson this season, Cooper has caught for 250 yards and 2 touchdowns off of 24 receptions. Seems horrible for a player of Cooper’s talent, right? Well, Cooper is statistically the best receiver the Bills have right now.
Only Dalton Kincaid has more targets than him, but Cooper has more yards and receptions than every Bills receiving option this season. Khalil Shakir has only 249 receiving yards off of 20 targets. Cooper is also tied with Shakir, Keon Coleman, and Mack Hollins for the most receiving touchdowns this season.
It’s amazing how adding Cooper is not only an upgrade as far as presence, but also what he brings to the stat sheet. Bills fans should be thrilled that Beane pulled off this move for a receiver that was in a bad situation and now he gets to revive his 2024 season in Buffalo.