ORCHARD PARK — Brandon Beane started making calls a week before the NFL trade deadline.
One of the calls he made was to Tennessee Titans general manager Mike Borgonzi, who was on his bye week. The play the Buffalo Bills general manager inquired about was NFL interceptions leader Amani Hooker, but Borgonzi was ready to make a deal.
Beane wanted an impact player to add to a defense that had shown promise — albeit against a third-string quarterback — in the previous week’s 36-10 win over the Baltimore Ravens, but struggled mightily for the first six weeks of the season.
Throughout the day Tuesday, Beane kicked the tires on a few other players, including Arizona Cardinals safety Budda Baker, but was again rebuffed. Then, around 1 p.m., conversations started heating up with the Titans about Hooker, pushing the Bills to find left tackle Dion Dawkins at a community event and restructure his contract to make room.
And so the Bills sent a 2027 second-round pick to the Titans for Hooker and a 2027 fifth to add an immediate impact player next to safety Cole Bishop, replacing recently-released C.J. Gardner-Johnson.
“He’s just been a very steady player,” Beane said. “We really liked him coming out (in the draft). … He’s had a great career. … He’s a very good player and I think it was going to take something significant like this to get Tennessee to move off of him, which I respect.”
As was the case in all of Beane’s other deadline deals — except for wide receiver Amari Cooper in 2024 — Hooker isn’t a rental player. The Bills are responsible for the remaining $4.47 million balance on Hooker’s contract this season, and the 28-year-old is due $10.28 million in 2027 and $13.5 million in 2028.
More importantly, the Bills get a plug-and-play safety who fits Buffalo’s defense and pairs well with Bishop. A natural fit with Bishop is something the Bills sought on the trade market, particularly after the talented third-year safety struggled to mesh with Gardner-Johnson’s freelancing style.
Hooker currently has five interceptions — three off Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow two weeks ago — and 17 for his career. He is most effective as a single-high post safety, while also being able to play robber in the middle of the field.
Although Hooker can play in the box and match in coverage, and the Bills looked at safeties that would move Bishop to play more to the post, defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard clearly envisions Bishop as a box safety.
After playing a large portion of split-safety snaps in Sean McDermott’s defense, Bishop has played near the line of scrimmage on 55% of his snaps this season, an increase of nearly 20% from last season.
Beane compared Hooker to Micah Hyde, in part due to Iowa being their shared alma mater, but also because of their playing style. Hyde was most effective playing as single-high or double-high safety, where he could see the field and break on passes.
“Jim’s been using (Bishop) up closer to the box. From that standpoint, this is a great marriage,” Beane said. “Amani can play the deep post and track that post. … There were at least a player or two (that we looked at) where Cole would have spent more time on the back end had one of those worked out.”
The big question is how quickly Hooker can learn Buffalo’s playbook. The Bills have confidence in Damar Hamlin, so they might not be in a hurry to throw him into the starting lineup against the New York Jets Sunday.
Safety is one of the most difficult positions to learn on the fly, but Hooker is an intelligent player. And the Bills want to give him time to gel with Bishop, whose play often hinges upon whether he trusts the safety next to him.
Under McDermott, three of the four players acquired in-season played that week, with the exceptions being wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin in 2017. Although running back Nyheim Hines only played four offensive snaps against the New York Jets in his first game.
Cornerback Rasul Douglas didn’t start against the Cincinnati Bengals, but the Bills gradually inserted him into the game and he ultimately played 60% of the snaps after Christian Benford was hurt. And Cooper played 34.5% of the snaps against the Titans, catching four passes for 66 yards and a touchdown.
“If you play a video game, they drop right and they’re just the same player. In real life, they’re not,” Beane said. “You do take intelligence in when you can, especially at safety. That’s a premium. … He’s going to have a lot of catching up to do. … We’ll just have to see how it goes, how quickly we can get him in here and get him up to speed.”