It has been a notable day of trades in the NFL. The New York Jets kicked things off by reuniting wide receiver Davante Adams with quarterback Aaron Rodgers with a blockbuster trade. However, the Jets were not the only AFC East team to make moves to improve their receiving corps.
The Buffalo Bills, who defeated the Jets on Monday Night Football, did not rest on their laurels. They went out and acquired former Raiders, Cowboys and Browns wide receiver Amari Cooper on Tuesday. For the third time in his career, Cooper has a new home via trade.
Buffalo may be 4-2 and one of the top Super Bowl contenders in the AFC, but it is fair to say their offensive weaponry is a bit light. It’s quarterback Josh Allen and… not much else. Allen is good enough to carry an offense, but the Bills realized their superstar quarterback needs more help. So now he has a wide receiver with 691 career receptions for 9,736 yards and 62 touchdowns.
Cooper has eclipsed the 1,000+ receiving yard mark in four of the last five seasons, including a career-best 1,250 last season for the otherwise offensively-inept Cleveland Browns. At age 30, Cooper is a bit long in the tooth by NFL standards, but he is more than capable of being an effective weapon for a quarterback to utilize.
Unfortunately, this means the Seattle Seahawks are going to have one more factor to deal with when they host the Bills in two weeks. Seattle has a brutal stretch of games on the horizon. After they play the Falcons in Atlanta, they will face off against the Bills for the first time since Josh Allen and Co. dismantled the Hawks 44-34 during the 2020 season.
The Seahawks defense is hurting, both physically health wise and on the field. They are having difficulty stopping the run, bringing down quarterbacks who can move, and generating turnovers. Allen can either be entirely too loose with the football, or play at an elite level to torch any secondary. If Seattle can’t shore things up here in the next few weeks, Allen and Cooper aren’t going to face much resistance.
