Tuesdays are for the trades, apparently. Just hours after the New York Jets acquired WR Davante Adams from the Las Vegas Raiders, the Buffalo Bills traded for a WR of their own, prying Amari Cooper away from the Cleveland Browns. Josh Allen gets a WR. Cooper gets out of Cleveland. Everybody wins. Well, except for Browns fans. And maybe not Khalil Shakir managers, but we’ll go into that a bit more below.
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Amari Cooper Trade: Fantasy Impact
Just hours after the announcement that the Jets were acquiring WR Davante Adams in a trade with the Raiders, we learned that another big-name receiver was on the move, with the Bills acquiring Amari Cooper in a deal with the Browns.
The Bills receiver Cooper and a sixth-round pick in the 2025 draft. The Browns receive a third-round pick in 2025 and a seventh-round pick in 2026.
Cooper is the tonic that QB Josh Allen and the Buffalo offense needed. Khalil Shakir has been operating as the Bills’ No. 1 receiver, and while Shakir is talented and productive, asking him to be an alpha receiver was a stretch. Rookie WR Keon Coleman is promising but doesn’t appear ready to be a major contributor. Curtis Samuel, Mack Hollins and Marquez Valdes-Scantling are role players.
Into the void steps Cooper, a veteran with a lengthy track record of success. The 30-year-old Cooper has had seven 1,000-yard seasons, reaching the 1,000-yard mark with the Raiders, Cowboys and Browns.
Cooper has been traded in-season once before, going from the Raiders to the Cowboys in 2018. That deal also took place in Week 7, for what it’s worth. Cooper immediately suited up for Dallas in Week 7 and had five catches for 58 yards and a touchdown.
Expect Cooper to become Allen’s top receiver in a matter of weeks, though Shakir should continue to have a fantasy-relevant role. Cooper has been a prominent target-earner but not a true target hog – he’s never finished in the top 10 in targets.
Cooper investors should be delighted with the dramatic upgrade in offensive ecosystems. The Cleveland offense has been completely dysfunctional, failing to produce 20 points in any of its first six games. The Browns haven’t generated 300 yards of offense in any game this season, and they’ve churned out fewer than 250 yards of offense in five of their six games.
Now, Cooper is paired with one of the best quarterbacks in the league, Josh Allen. It’s worth remembering what sort of numbers Stefon Diggs put up as Buffalo’s top receiver before the Bills traded him this past offseason. During his four seasons in Buffalo, Diggs averaged 111 catches, 1,343 receiving yards and 9.3 touchdowns per season. Cooper might not have quite the same sort of upside, but he might be able to provide 80%-90% of that production.
I now have Cooper at WR17 in my rest-of-season rankings. Shakir is WR42.
The addition of Cooper could mean a slight target haircut for TE Dalton Kincaid, but Kincaid’s status as a midrange to low-end TE1 will probably remain intact.
As for Allen, his lack of pass-catching weaponry has kept him out of his usual top-three perch in the weekly rankings lately. With Cooper in the fold, Allen goes back to being a top-three QB option most weeks.
As for the Browns … yikes.
The Cleveland offense was a mess to begin with, and now one of its best players is gone. Cooper hadn’t been his usually productive self this season, committing some egregious drops. But it would be hard to make a case that the Browns’ offense is better off without him.
Deshaun Watson has been unplayable in 1QB leagues to begin with. Now, Watson might not even be playable in superflex leagues. And with the Cleveland passing game so anemic, I’m not sure Browns WRs Jerry Jeudy and Elijah Moore will gain enough value to become appealing lineup options in most fantasy leagues. But they do gain some value, as does TE David Njoku.
That said, this might be a good time to target Jeudy, Moore and Cooper in trades. Although Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski has thus far dug in his heels and refused to bench Deshaun Watson, it’s hard to imagine that he can take that stance much longer without losing the locker room.
If Stefanski eventually benches Watson, the new starter will likely be Jameis Winston. Although Winston is mistake-prone, he generally injects a shot of adrenaline into the fantasy value of his pass catchers. Winston is as aggressive a downfield throwers as you’ll find. That aggression leads to a lot of interceptions but also a lot of big plays. The last time Winston was an entrenched starter — with the Buccaneers in 2019 — he threw for a league-high 5,109 yards and a league-high 30 interceptions.
With Amari Cooper now gone, if Winston becomes the Browns’ starting quarterback, Jeudy, Moore and Njoku could quickly become valuable fantasy assets.
-Pat Fitzmaurice
The Bills traded for Browns WR Amari Cooper to improve their wide receiver room. After opening the year hoping for the young players to step up, Buffalo realized they needed to add another weapon for Allen. Cooper has been a major disappointment in fantasy football this season, but it’s not for a lack of opportunity or abilities in my estimation. Eighth in target share (28%), seventh in targets, third in air yards share (50%), and second in air yards overall (697). His issue has been mostly Deshaun Watson – aside from the bone-headed drops Cooper has from time to time. The former Browns WR has the third-lowest catchable target rate (62%) among WRs with at least 25 targets this season, per FantasyPoints data.
-Andrew Erickson
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