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Having not gotten the production they were hoping for from their current group of wide receivers, the Buffalo Bills took a big swing by acquiring Amari Cooper from the Cleveland Browns on Tuesday.
Per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Bills will send a 2025 third-round draft pick to Cleveland in exchange for Cooper.
Thanks to Cooper’s contract restructure during the offseason, he is only making $1.2 million for the entire season. Factoring in the six games he’s already been paid for, the Bills are only on the hook for the remaining $807,000 he is owed.
That’s one of the primary reasons the Bills were able to pull off this deal. They entered the day with just over $3 million in cap space, third-lowest in the NFL. The Browns have the second-most cap space at $43.9 million that they will almost certainly be rolling over into next year with Deshaun Watson set to count $72.9 million against their books.
Updated Bills Depth Chart
QB: Josh Allen/Mitchell Trubisky
RB: James Cook/Ray Davis/Ty Johnson
FB: Reggie Gilliam
WR1: Amari Cooper/Keon Coleman
WR2: Mack Hollins
Slot WR: Khalil Shakir/Curtis Samuel
TE: Dalton Kincaid/Dawson Knox/Quintin Morris
LT: Dion Dawkins/Ryan Van Demark
LG: David Edwards/Will Clapp
C: Connor McGovern/Sedrick Van Pran-Granger
RG: O’Cyrus Torrence/Alec Anderson
RT: Spencer Brown
Updated Browns Depth Chart
QB: Deshaun Watson/Jameis Winston/Dorian Thompson-Robinson
RB: Nick Chubb/Jerome Ford/Pierre Strong/D’Onta Foreman
WR1: Cedric Tillman
WR2: Jerry Jeudy/Jamari Thrash
Slot WR: Elijah Moore
TE: David Njoku//Geoff Swaim/Jordan Akins
LT: Jedrick Wills Jr./Germain Ifedi
LG: Joel Bitonio
C: Ethan Pocic/Nick Harris
RG: Zak Zinter/Michael Dunn
RT: Jack Conklin/Dawand Jones
Depth charts via Ourlads.com
The Browns made the smart move here to add a future draft asset because it’s hard to see a way that this season turns around for them. They are one of four teams with a 1-5 record going into Week 7.
Cleveland’s offense has been horrendous with fewer than 20 points in each of the first six games. Even though head coach Kevin Stefanski insists on sticking with Watson at quarterback, he is playing historically bad football right now.
There is no path for the Browns to get out of Watson’s contract until after next season at the earliest, so the best thing they can do in an attempt to salvage 2024 is trade whatever veterans they can to add more draft picks in 2025 and beyond.
Next year will mark the first time Cleveland has had a first-round pick since 2021 as a result of the Watson trade with the Houston Texans in March 2022.
Meanwhile, the Bills absolutely needed to land another pass-catcher to help Josh Allen. Davante Adams probably wasn’t a realistic target for them anyway because of his contract, but he came off the board earlier on Tuesday when the Las Vegas Raiders traded him to the New York Jets.
All due to respect to Khalil Shakir, who has been good for the Bills since being drafted in 2022, his absence in Week 5 should not have affected the team as much as it did.
First-round rookie Keon Coleman has played fewer than 75 percent of the offensive snaps in five of the first six games. No Bills pass-catcher has more than 249 receiving yards so far this season.
Cooper, who can become a free agent after this season, has 250 yards despite playing on the woeful Browns offense. He is only 30 and set career-highs in receiving yards (1,250) and yards per reception (17.4) in 2023.
The Bills needed a deep threat who is capable of taking the top off of defenses. Cooper will offer them that as they look to maintain their grip on first place in the AFC East after the Jets made their big swing for a receiver.
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