Bills Land Amari Cooper! ‘Billieve’ it!

It’s a great day to be a fan of the Buffalo Bills!

Beating the Jets 23-20 at Met Life Stadium was nice and all that – the Bills are back in the AFC East driver’s seat – but it gets better.

MUCH Better.

The Bills have pulled the strings on a monumental trade to acquire 5-time Pro Bowl WR Amari Cooper from the Cleveland Browns, giving Josh Allen the clear cut Alpha Dog they’ve missed since trading away Stefon Diggs.

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Although the Jets made a splash earlier in the day by trading for Davante Adams from the Raiders, it’s clear to me the Bills landed the first prize catch.

Cooper is a stud. Big, fast, and tough. The former Alabama star was the 4th overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft and just turned 30. Cooper was miserable in Cleveland with DeShaun Watson, (Browns are 1-5) even though the Browns gave him a lucrative contract extension before this season.

For Cooper, the Browns get the Bills 3rd round in 2025 and 7th round pick in 2026, with the Bills getting Cooper and a 2025 sixth round pick. The Browns made Cooper affordable with a preseason extension that is only counting $1.2M as his base salary. The Browns made his $20M contract a bonus, making the trade more affordable for any prospective suitors. The Bills and GM Brandon Beane were the winners.

To make room on the roster, the Bills cut WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling, who had made virtually no impact anyway.

Ironically, Cooper’s “slow start” – 24 catches for 250 yards and 2 TD’s – would still lead all Bills receivers right now. Cooper also has 9 drops this season, but the Bills are counting on him to refocus under new surroundings. It’s a bit of a gamble, with Cooper’s production dropping a bit the past couple seasons. However, the Bills have the luxury of walking away after this season, since it’s the final year of Cooper’s original deal with Dallas.

Why do I think the Bills got their top target? Cooper is younger, with Adams two years older – but Adams is in decline for the past couple seasons. The Jets, now 2-4, are desperate to help 40 year old Aaron Rodgers NOW, and he knows Adams well from their time in Green Bay together.

This doesn’t automatically make the Bills a Super Bowl favorite overnight, but it’s impossible to overstate how much better he makes Allen and the Bills instantly. The very threat of Cooper downfield will open things up -theoretically at least – for Dalton Kincaid, Khalil Shakir and Keon Coleman among others. Allen clearly needs better receivers, as he has one of the lowest WR completions in the NFL thus far.

These kind of deals take time, and the grumbling and moaning about the Bills “not doing anything to help Allen” need to understand that. There’s no question Cooper had choices, but c’mon. It would be interesting to know if the KC Chiefs were among those choices?

The Bills win over the Jets now looks better than ever. Depth. RB James Cook is out, so rookie Ray Davis, a 4th round pick out of Kentucky, stepped in and had 20 carries for 97 yards, and made a brilliant 42 yard catch after an Allen scramble. Davis is only 5-8, but weighs 220 and hits the hole with enthusiasm. OC Joe Brady, even without Cook, blistered the Jets D with a solid running game right from the get go.

But let’s not take for granted what Allen did in this MNF game. His first half especially was incredible, and he did it against the NFL’s #2 defense. The Bills blasted the Jets with their running game early, but it was Allen who made THE plays. Once nearly sacked in his own end zone, Allen eluded 2 pass rushers and rolled to the right, looking downfield. Davis broke his pattern and went deep, and made a sensational catch at midfield to get the Bills out of a hole. Later Allen was pushed out of the pocket in the red zone, and while running left, hit TE Dawson Knox with a perfect strike to Knox coming towards the ball in the corner of the end zone just before the end of the first half.

This was vintage Allen. Late in the game the Bills faced a 3rd and 4 situation nursing the 3 point lead, and Allen ad libbed what was supposed to be a pitch right to the RB, into a scramble for a first down.

Allen has now started 99 games in a row. Unbelievable really, for a guy that big who takes some hits, to be that durable. And tough mentally. Right now he’s playing with an injured left hand, sprained ankle and sore chest. Yet not only was he large and in charge, but trash talking at a high level against frustrated Jets defenders. With 2 TD passes and a third on the ground, Allen now has 10 TD’s passing and another 3 rushing, with NO interceptions! Patrick Mahomes has 5, which makes him a turnover machine?

It wasn’t all roses. I join the majority of fans who cringed at the Bills plan to rush only 2 DL’s with the Jets at midfield in the final seconds of the first half. We’ve seen Rodgers do this before, and he did it again, a high arching floater that was caught for a Hail Mary TD. All the great work building a 20-10 halftime lead disappeared to a 20-17 lead in a huge momentum swing.

I still strongly support Sean McDermott. He’s an outstanding coach who deserves a ton of credit for putting the Bills in contention to win every year. Yes, he inherited a great QB, but the Bills culture and team unity is well known, and no doubt played a part in Amari Cooper’s decision to shuffle off to Buffalo. But boy, some of his late game strategies are head scratching.

Tyler Bass missed an extra point and missed a field goal, although he did eventually convert the game winner from short distance on an extremely windy night in New Jersey. It was later revealed that Bass’s missed PAT was partially blocked by Jets lineman Quinnen Williams. His confidence seems to be shaky, but the Bills know it’s a huge risk to even contemplate a change at this stage of the season.

Love LT Dion Dawkins, but his personal foul during a scrum in the dark could have cost the Bills the game. He has a private war going against the Jets, but that’s just selfish. No doubt he’s aware of that by now.

Let’s not be too tough on RT Spencer Brown, who had the misfortune of taking two penalties in a row at one point. A false start, followed by a personal foul for an aggressive block that cost 15 yards on top of the five. Look at the play. Brown made a strong block, then finished it by driving a D lineman into the turf. I LOVED it!

The penalties in this game were ridiculous. Both the Bills and Jets were flagged for 11 penalties, adding up to over 200 yards! We knew this was a flag happy crew, but get real.

The topper was a roughing the passer on a perfect Rodgers sack from AJ Epenesa. The NFL has been emphasizing protecting QB’s from full weight body slams, and that’s understandable. The QB is totally defenseless, and when a 300 pounder drives into the prone body, it can often lead to serious injury. But in this case, Epenesa clearly didn’t put his full weight on the QB purposely. Even Rodgers said after the game that should not have been a penalty. It was a factor, because the sack stopped a drive, that would eventually become a TD.

How nice was it to get DB Taron Johnson back? He was greatly missed in the losses at Baltimore and Houston. As he often does, Johnson made a play that secured a victory. His late interception of a long pass from Rodgers basically ended the game, with that final first down run from Allen of course.

So, how quickly gloom and doom can switch back to bandwagon optimism. Still long way to go, but.. it’s a great day to be a Bills fan!!

Editor’s babble: Amari Cooper. Yes please. Many thanks to Ed Kilgore for his contributions to our blog. You can also find Ed on Xwitter @Kilgore2Ed.