Amari Cooper doesn’t have to fret about enjoying with a traditionally dangerous quarterback anymore. Josh Allen doesn’t need to function an offense by which Mack Hollins and Curtis Samuel are important cogs.
And so with Tuesday’s commerce, Cooper will get a win. The Buffalo Payments get a win. Deshaun Watson, effectively, at the very least now he’s obtained an excuse for why the Cleveland Browns offense is so toothless.
The Browns and Payments swung the second deal of a burgeoning commerce deadline season. Cleveland moved its prime wideout east to concurrently wave a white flag on a misplaced season and reinforce the concept the crew was by no means going to increase Cooper. Buffalo, confronted with a chance to run away with a all of a sudden toothless AFC East and having watched the New York Jets convey Davante Adams into the fold, gave up a 3rd spherical decide to forestall getting caught from behind.
Sources: The #Payments are buying and selling for #Browns WR Amari Cooper, sending a third-round decide in a decide swap.
Full particulars:
BUF will get WR Amari Cooper and sixth in 2025
CLE will get third in 2025 and a seventh in 2026 pic.twitter.com/jabaQYMw8h— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 15, 2024
The commerce is an enormous improve for each wideout and quarterback. Cooper has usually underwhelmed alongside Watson and 2024 has been no exception. His 41.7 receiving yards per sport are a profession low. That’s a warning signal for a 30-year-old receiver, however there’s motive to consider a brand new quarterback can revive him to Professional Bowl standing.
We’ve seen it earlier than. Cooper was disinterested as an Oakland Raider, then moved to Dallas and noticed his receiving yards soar by almost 35 per sport after an in-season commerce. Leaving the Cowboys led to a different statistical soar. He had 57 catches for 792 yards and 7 touchdowns in his first 11 video games as a Brown — the stretch by which Jacoby Brissett took snaps whereas Watson sat out a suspension stemming from greater than 20 accusations of sexual misconduct and what the NFL itself described as “predatory habits.”
When Watson was injured in 2023 and changed with a mélange of backups, he ultimately thrived alongside a 38-year-old Joe Flacco because of Flacco’s willingness to take probabilities downfield. In truth, break up Cooper’s Cleveland profession and also you discover a sample in his output each time the Browns’ failed franchise quarterback steps into the lineup.
Amari Cooper’s manufacturing as a Brown:
- 2022, Video games 1 by means of 11 (main QB Jacoby Brissett): 5.2 catches, 72 yards, 0.6 touchdowns per sport. 8.5 yards per goal
- 2022, Recreation 12 by means of 2023, Recreation 6 (main QB Deshaun Watson): 3.8 catches, 63.1 yards, 0.3 TD/sport. 8.8 yards/goal
- 2023, Video games 7 although 15 (main QB Joe Flacco): 5.3 catches, 93.7 yards, 0.4 TD/sport. 10.6 yards/goal
- 2024 (main QB Watson): 4.0 catches, 41.7 yards, 0.3 TD/sport. 4.7 yards/goal
It is a participant who’s significantly better when Watson is usurped by even a alternative degree quarterback. Now he will get an MVP candidate with an anti-aircraft gun for an arm. Cooper is the nerdy woman in a teenage romantic comedy. Allen is right here, able to take off his glasses and paint-stained overalls to comprehend, whoops, he’s a smokeshow.
That’s a giant deal for Buffalo. Stefon Diggs’ absence left a gap on the prime of a skinny depth chart. Whereas Allen is enjoying among the most effective soccer of his profession his downfield passing sport has suffered barely. His 5.3 air yards per completion are by far a profession low. He solely has 5 deep completions (20-plus yards downfield) in six video games and his 23.8 % completion charge on such throws can be a profession low, per SIS.
Cooper isn’t precisely what you’d count on from a field-stretching deep risk, however he can get there. His minimal common goal distance as a Brown is 12.1 yards downfield — a quantity that rose to 14-plus yards in 2023 with Flacco lobbing bombs from the pocket. His presence as an intermediate and deep risk not solely takes the stress off Hollins and Marquez Valdes-Scantling on these routes, however ought to pull defensive focus away from a blossoming Keon Coleman and tight finish Dalton Kincaid.
There’s danger concerned for the Payments. Cooper struggled with drops all through his Browns tenure however 2024 has plumbed a brand new low. His 9 drops — a 17 % drop charge! — are 4 greater than another participant within the league, per Professional Soccer Reference. ESPN solely credit him with three, which is healthier however nonetheless not nice. His 0.77 yards per route run rank 91st out of 120 certified receivers.
However Cooper averaged 1.97 YPRR in 2022 (18th) and a couple of.22 in 2023 (sixteenth), which suggests his quarterback could also be extra of an element than his age. Whereas Buffalo can’t replicate the releasing impact of getting Nick Chubb within the backfield, it will probably at the very least come shut with James Prepare dinner and Ray Davis.
With one transfer, Cooper was delivered from a quarterback with whom he’s not suitable and added him to an offense led by an MVP frontrunner. Allen obtained a participant who can revive his deep passing sport after an early hibernation.
The Browns obtained a 3rd spherical decide and extra ammunition of their battle to sink all the best way to the highest spot within the 2025 NFL Draft. That’s dangerous information for Watson and even worse information for Kevin Stefanski, the two-time NFL Coach of the 12 months who could wind up on the new seat as a result of he was in a position to take Flacco and Baker Mayfield to the playoffs however not the human catastrophe for whom the franchise as soon as mortgaged its future.
That’s not fairly a win-win-win on the subject of battle decision. However it’s shut.
