Just hours after their close victory on ‘Monday Night Football,’ the Bills made a wide receiver move to help a passing offense sorely in need of one.
The Bills acquired long-time star wideout Amari Cooper from the Cleveland Browns, giving the Bills the player they’ve been searching for. The Bills sent out a 2025 third and 2026 seventh-round pick, while also getting a 2025 sixth-round pick from the Browns along with Cooper.
What will Cooper do for the offense, what is he as a player, how does it fit their cap situation, and what might it mean for the Bills moving forward?
After watching every route Cooper has run in 2024, here’s what the Bills are getting with their new receiver.
Why the Bills needed to make a big move at receiver
After three consecutive weeks of the passing offense flailing with inconsistency due to their wide receiver play and teams beginning to play the Bills differently defensively, enough was enough for general manager Brandon Beane. Because opposing defenses didn’t respect the Bills’ ability to get open, they began to mix in more daring schemes than the two-high shell the Bills had grown accustomed to working against. It really began with the Ravens, and then extended into the Texans and Jets games. Teams dared the Bills receivers to beat them early, which resulted in a lot more of Allen attempting to improvise. The Bills have sorely needed someone who can separate and command attention from the opposing team and, really, a player who can take over with a high volume of targets.
What does the film show from Cooper’s first six games?
Through six games, Cooper has not had quite the impact that most are accustomed to during his career. He’s on pace for only 68 receptions and 708 yards, which would easily be the worst non-injury year of his career. His drops have also been widely publicized. But this is why watching the film is so beneficial: you can see the how, what, and why. And the film shows that the evaluation goes well beyond all of those issues as Cooper-only problems. There seem to be pretty distinct reasons for both his lack of production and the drops “issue.”
The primary thing evident when watching Cooper is that he is still getting open at a good rate. The Browns’ passing attack is so bad that it is sucking the life out of Cooper’s weekly chances to be an impactful receiver. They badly need a quarterback change, and their stubbornness against doing so has led to the offensive situation eroding with each game. Cooper looks like he’s been on a different page with his quarterback for most of the year.
The ball placement to Cooper has been horrible, and several of the drops assigned to him resulted from an off-body throw that could have been prevented with either a quicker decision, better throwing mechanics or a combination of the two. Cooper does deserve a pair of the drops because they hit him right in the hands, but it’s not as overwhelming of a problem as you might expect, and it likely gets better with an upgrade at quarterback. Through six games, Cooper has six drops. His yearly average in the previous four seasons is five drops, so there is likely some positive regression coming, especially with a massive quarterback upgrade.
You can even sense a hint of frustration in Cooper’s body language on film, too, when he knows he read the defense correctly and popped open, only to see the throw sail over his head to a different area that was not as open. He’s not overly demonstrative to the point of being an issue, but target earning and separation is a skill, and for it to go without success as often as it has this season can wear thin on a player. It’s as if Cooper and the quarterback are speaking two different languages at times. Here’s a great example against the Giants.
Cooper is one-on-one against the cornerback as the Giants are showing Cover-1 man coverage pre-snap.
The post-snap reveals the Giants are indeed in man coverage with a safety over the top. Cooper recognizes it and puts a slick move with his right foot on the cornerback to get him leaning one way.
Just a few steps into the route, Cooper already has a yard-plus of separation. The route combinations against man coverage show a potential big play is on the horizon as Cooper drags over the middle.
The cornerback is well behind, and the safety has eyes on both of the receivers to the right of the defensive formation.
Right here is a clear-as-day opportunity. There is a clean pocket, the quarterback is looking over the middle of the field, and Cooper has ample separation, with a run after catch lane for a potentially huge gain if he gets over to the sideline.
Instead, the quarterback waits too long, pressure gets to him and the throw gets deflected as the football is released. They squandered a major opportunity for a big play to Cooper on third down. That’s just one of many examples.
So then, what are the Bills getting out of this seven-time 1,000-yard receiver in the NFL? What is his overall skill set?
He may not be as spry getting deep down the field as he was in his younger years, but his game has a lot of nuance that makes him an outstanding asset, even as a 30-year-old player. When Cooper runs his routes, he glides. There is power and intention in every step, and there really isn’t a tell in his movements, making him so deceptive and unpredictable to cover for a defensive back. Those heavy movements can get defenders leaning one way, and because Cooper’s smooth movements are so consistent, zone defenders can’t trust the beginning of a breakdown to break on the ball.
But there’s more to his route running than just gliding. When he needs quick separation, he can get it with quick-footed releases. Because he lulls defenders with his usual gliding, that occasional break-off will catch defenders by surprise and can get them out of sorts right at the beginning of the cut. It’s like a cloud that’s been gliding by for minutes. You’re used to it moving at one speed, and then suddenly, out of nowhere, it turns into a tornado with varying speeds that gets you all out of sorts.
On top of that, Cooper has an excellent understanding of zone depths, spacing from defenders, and where to sit to find the best angle for his quarterback. There are several times on film where he found a perfect spot against zone and was ignored by the quarterback. When plays break down, that’s also a strength of Cooper’s game as he relocates well during scramble drills. That will be especially important with Josh Allen. From a ball skills perspective, Cooper can win in contested situations and offers good sideline awareness to get his feet inbounds.
However, for all the good, he’s not perfect at this stage of his career. Cooper will have the occasional drop, and he’s no longer a deep-field separator. He’s also not a great blocker, whether on run plays or screens, so that may impact their play-calling with him in the game. The separation against man likely takes more work than it used to, so his smooth, gliding routes must remain an asset to keep defenders guessing. He also doesn’t offer as much run-after-catch potential as earlier in his career.
Regardless of his weaknesses, the Bills are getting a potential number-one wideout who has shown he can dominate a game in multiple ways when peppered with targets. And with how he wins with his high IQ against zone and subtle yet intentional, nuanced route running, he’ll be an asset for Allen with significant weekly potential for the rest of the season.
How does he fit the Bills in 2024?
Once they give him some build-up time over the next few weeks, the idea for Cooper will be to eventually take over the highest snap percentage role and be the go-to perimeter receiver on the roster. With the Bills using Coleman at X-receiver for much of his young career, putting Cooper in the Z-receiver role to attack both the outside and the middle of the field is the likeliest path for him — though he can play both spots.
Since the beginning of the year, the Bills have been trying to figure out their receiver rotation and have spread around their offensive snaps to see what would stick. But in doing so, the Bills found themselves with a problem of taking their best receiving options off the field, and sometimes even in key late game and late down situations. Once Cooper is fully up to speed with the offense, it would not be a surprise if the Bills lean into some clearly defined roles, much like they did in previous seasons. Cooper would likely get one of the biggest snap shares on the team, if not the biggest. He has primarily been an 80-to-95 percent snap player over the last two years, and if he takes to the offense well, that’s the expectation for his potential role in Buffalo.
What does this mean for the rest of the receiver room in 2024?
Khalil Shakir’s role should remain unchanged as their top slot receiver. When he’s healthy, having him around 70 percent of snaps has been where they landed before with the role and might be the way they go moving forward as well. Keon Coleman should continue to play a similar, or slightly higher snap percentage as he did on Monday night. Coleman wound up at 64 percent. Given his effectiveness and trajectory, somewhere between 65 to 75 percent should be the sweet spot. Mack Hollins will likely see the biggest downturn in snaps, as they may push him into the primary backup at both X and Z-receiver, while providing some wind sprint snaps down the sideline as the WR4. Curtis Samuel will likely be the gadgety fifth receiver whose role will vary by opponent.
Why the cap and compensation pieces made sense
The Cooper trade is a home run for Beane and the Bills, who found an impact receiver that uniquely fits what they need from a salary cap perspective. The team had only $2.9 million in cap space, according to the daily NFLPA report before the move. Because the Browns converted all but the veteran minimum of Cooper’s $20 million base salary in the offseason, all the Bills will have to pay is the rest-of-season prorated amount of his $1.21 million base salary. It will add just a shade under $800,000 to their salary cap this season, which is an outright steal considering his talent and potential impact on the team.
Although it cost the Bills a third-round pick to get Cooper, they likely felt they could move off that pick because they acquired a 2025 second-round pick in the Stefon Diggs deal. The Bills are still left with their own first and second-round picks in April’s draft, along with the Vikings second-round pick, giving them a usual complement of Day 1 and 2 selections. If there’s one piece that is slightly abnormal for Beane, it’s that Cooper is a true-to-form rental player. Cooper is a free agent following the 2024 season, and in past deadline deals, Beane has primarily invested draft picks into players signed beyond the current year. However, with having an extra pick to play with, along with the outstanding fit to their 2024 salary cap solution, the Bills likely made an exception in another push toward a Super Bowl.
What does this mean for the future at WR?
Above all else, it showed the Bills were unsatisfied with certain pieces of the receiver room, which likely carries over into the offseason. The two pieces nailed down are Shakir and Coleman, who are under contract in 2025. Samuel is signed next year, but it’s well-established that he’s outside their top three. Both Cooper and Hollins are free agents.
The question then centers around giving it one more year with Cooper, with a short-term extension for his age-31 season. It would probably be a bit more cost-effective in a one-year deal to a player at that age rather than trying the trade or free agency route. It makes 2024 a potential “try before you buy” situation with Cooper. If they decline to give Cooper a one-year extension, it may compel the Bills to go big game hunting at WR — whether in the draft, free agency or via trade. It’s clear they need someone with the Shakir and Coleman duo, which will make for an interesting offseason in however they play it.
(Top photo: Jason Miller / Getty Images)
