The New York Jets and Buffalo Bills clashed on Monday Night Football, and now each club has gone out and acquired a Pro Bowl wide receiver on Tuesday.
In an effort to give quarterback Josh Allen a true number 1 wide receiver, the Bills have acquired WR Amari Cooper from the Cleveland Browns. Buffalo will send a 2025 3rd round pick and a 2026 7th rounder to Cleveland in exchange for the 30 year old wideout and a 2025 6th round pick.
Cooper is a 5x Pro Bowler who has topped 1,000 receiving yards 7 times throughout his career. Originally selected 4th overall by the Raiders in 2015, the former Alabama standout hauled in a career best 1,250 receiving yards in 2023. However with the poor play of current QB Deshaun Watson, he’s struggled to even come close to replicating those numbers this season.
With Cleveland sitting at the bottom of the AFC North with a 1-5 record, the Browns had been fielding offers for Cooper over the past few weeks. Now, he’ll join an AFC East leading Buffalo squad with Super Bowl ambitions, and hope to replace some of the production the team lost when they traded WR Stefon Diggs to Houston in the offseason.
While the veteran WR is likely to fit in quickly wherever he was destined to land, the fact that Bills WR coach Adam Henry previously worked with Cooper in Dallas for two seasons is bound to make the transition that much smoother. In a corresponding move, the Bills announced that they have released WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
Meanwhile, fresh off a disappointing 23-20 loss to their divisional rivals, the New York Jets are hoping that Aaron Rodgers can recapture his MVP form by reuniting him with former teammate Davante Adams.
The Jets acquired the former 6x Pro Bowler from the Las Vegas Raiders in exchange for a conditional 3rd round selection in the 2025 NFL Draft. That pick could improve to a 2nd rounder if Adams is named to the 1st or 2nd team All-Pro list, or is on the Jets active roster for either the AFC Championship or Super Bowl.
“We’re back, man,” Adams said while making a cameo on Rodgers’ interview on The Pat McAfee Show. “We’re back.”
“Obviously, I’m really excited,” Rodgers said. “It’s on us now. We’re going all in.”
In an effort to get the deal across the finish line, Adams restructured his contract to lower his cap hit this season to $3.21M, while adding two voidable years to the end of the deal. Both sides are already talking about a possible extension, but will wait to see how the former All-Pro fits into his new surroundings before putting pen to paper.
“Not only an elite player, as we all know, but the relationship with him and Aaron just takes his value to a whole other space for us,” interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich told reporters following confirmation of the deal. Adams is expected to make his Jets debut on Sunday night vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers, though Ulbrich stopped short of confirming that he would be in green and white this week. “I hope so, but it’s too early to assess right now.”
The 32 year old had a huge season for Vegas in 2022, his first with the team, hauling in 14TDs, and 1,516 receiving yards on 100 receptions. However after the team moved on from former college teammate Derek Carr, Adams production dipped, and his frustrations with the direction of the franchise began to grow.
This culminated in a bizarre social media spat with head coach Antonio Pierce, and Adams subsequently being inactive for the last 3 weeks with a hamstring injury. Miraculously, said injury doesn’t appear to be playing a factor in Adams’ availability for this coming week.
New York will look to make up ground on the Bills Sunday night when he team travels to Pittsburgh for an 8:20pm ET showdown with the Steelers. Meanwhile, Buffalo will play host to the Tennessee Titans in a 1pm ET affair.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner