ORCHARD PARK — Amari Cooper seemed like a kid on his first day at a new school, well, because that’s how he felt.
Cooper woke up Tuesday as a member of the Cleveland Browns. A few hours later, Cooper was behind the steering wheel of his car, making the 185-mile drive to Buffalo alone with his thoughts.
He had brief meetings with Bills general manager Brandon Beane and coach Sean McDermott Tuesday evening and then donned a No. 18 jersey for a walk-through with the Bills roughly 24 hours after being traded.
There were few familiar faces when Cooper arrived at One Bills Drive for practice Wednesday. He is reunited with receivers coach Adam Henry from their days with the Dallas Cowboys, the same with practice squad quarterback Mike White and center Connor McGovern, while he grew up in the same area of Miami as running back Frank Gore Jr.
Cooper has now been traded three times in his 10-year NFL career, including a midseason trade from the Raiders to the Cowboys in 2018. But even though Cooper is accustomed to transitioning to a new team, he’s never been traded five days before a game.
McDermott said Wednesday there was no decision on whether Cooper would suit up for the Bills against the Tennessee Titans Sunday and Cooper didn’t know himself.
“I would still have to kind of go through the week, get a routine,” Cooper said Wednesday. “Still learning the playbook and everything. I just got here … so I don’t really have an expectation right now that I can chalk up to being realistic until I go through the week.”
It was a busy start to the week for Beane, who acknowledged he had conversations regarding receiver Davante Adams. But his last conversation regarding Adams occurred Monday morning, and, by the time it was announced Adams was traded from Las Vegas to the New York Jets the next day, Beane was already focused on acquiring Cooper.
Beane had an inkling Monday afternoon that he could land Cooper, but the Bills were hours from playing the New York Jets and he decided to table talks with the Browns until the game was finished. Then the deal was finalized and announced Tuesday afternoon.
It is the third consecutive season Beane traded for a player during the season — Nyheim Hines in 2022 and Rasul Douglas in 2023 — and he said that there have been conversations with other teams about various players, while not ruling out making another trade before the Nov. 5 trade deadline if it fit Buffalo’s salary cap needs.
Adding Cooper over a player like Adams was largely focused around the cap. Adams, a year older than the 30-year-old Cooper, is due $39 million over the next two seasons, while Cooper’s restructured contract leaves the Bills on the hook for less than $1 million before it expires at the end of the season.
And while Beane was adamant Cooper was meant to be an addition to Buffalo’s receiver group instead of an upgrade, it was clear the Bills needed help at the position. The Bills receivers rank 25th in the NFL in targets and 26th in receptions (53) and yards (649) six games into the season.
“I’m always looking. It doesn’t mean I didn’t like the group,” Beane said. “I can’t make a team like Cleveland do the deal. If we didn’t do this deal for him, I still like our group. It’s not anything there. Any time you can add a player, just like we added Rasul last year, I’m always going to monitor that.”
With Cooper now a member of the Bills, it’s now about finding the right fit for him within the offense. Beane, still in the Carolina Panthers front office at the time, was high on Cooper when he was drafted in 2014, recalling a less than loquacious pre-draft dinner with Cooper and then being impressed the next morning when Cooper walked him through plays and routes.
Admitting Cooper is now on the back stretch of his career, Beane still sees a smooth route runner who can stretch the field with 4.42-second 40-yard dash speed he ran at the NFL scouting combine a decade ago.
But getting a new receiver into the flow of the offense midseason is challenging. Cooper not only has to learn the plays — the Bills run a complex system in which they ask receivers to play a variety of roles — but the checks and alerts when quarterback Josh Allen changes the play before the snap.
It’s a different scenario for an offensive player compared to Douglas, who was traded five days before playing the Cincinnati Bengals and played heavily in the game, while Hines never found a fit in the offense. Having Henry around to explain everything to Cooper in a language he understands should be an advantage, though.
“There’s things you can do,” Beane said. “Tagging plays or there’s various ways. And I do think Adam Henry, having coached him, knowing maybe he can say, ‘This is what we called it in Dallas,’ or things like that, just to kind of help speed that up.”
Cooper was in a similar situation in 2018, making 22 catches for 280 yards and a touchdown through six games with the Raiders before being traded. He went on to tally 53 catches for 725 yards and six touchdowns in nine games with the Cowboys that season.
Through six games with the Browns this season, Cooper had 24 receptions for 250 yards and two scores. But the biggest difference between 2018 and this year is that the Cowboys had a bye week when they acquired Cooper, giving him an extra week to acclimate, catching five passes for 58 yards and a score in his first game with the Cowboys, which coincidentally came against the Titans.
Known as a smart and calculating player throughout the league, Cooper also fancies himself in that mold. And despite the two scenarios not being quite the same, he can take away aspects of the transition and apply them to Buffalo.
“At the end of the day, it’s just football,” Cooper said. “I think I’m a pretty cerebral guy, at least cerebral enough to learn the playbook as fast as I can, so I can go out there and get lined up and just run routes, catch the ball, get open, compete in the running game.”
How the Bills fit him into the offense now falls upon offensive coordinator Joe Brady. Nobody seemed happier to have Cooper than Allen, but he also understands that it might take some time.
The Bills have struggled to incorporate new receivers the past three seasons. They have acquired six receivers in free agency since 2022 and they have produced a combined 53 catches, 495 yards and four touchdowns.
Allen’s numbers have subsequently taken a hit, particularly under Brady’s “Everybody Eats” approach. In 15 games with Brady calling plays, Allen has two 300-yard games, with 24 passing touchdowns and 14 rushing scores, compared to five 300-yard games, 31 passing touchdowns and nine rushing scores in former offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey’s final 15 games.
Allen has yet to throw for 300 yards this season and his receivers have three plays of at least 30 yards. Khalil Shakir is the lone receiver to crack 60 yards in a game and 52 of his 62 yards against the Baltimore Ravens came on one play.
Although Cooper has an NFL-worst nine drops this season, he is a bonafide No. 1 receiver with seven 1,000-yard seasons, topping 1,100 in the four of the previous five seasons.
“He’s been around this league long enough to understand how this game works,” Allen said. “The most important thing is just getting him involved, and then getting the ball to him and letting him do his thing.”
NOTES: Beane confirmed the Bills worked out two kickers after practice Wednesday in the wake of Tyler Bass missing two kicks against the Jets. … LB Terrel Bernard (pectoral), RB James Cook (toe), FB Reggie Gilliam (hamstring), WR Mack Hollins (shoulder), CB Taron Johnson (forearm), DT DaQuan Jones (foot), TE Dalton Kincaid (collarbone) and DT Ed Oliver (hamstring) were limited in practice.