Why Amari Cooper was a better acquisition for Bills than Davante Adams

The Buffalo Bills are much better off trading for Amari Cooper than they are had they acquired Davante Adams instead.

Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Buffalo Bills made a splash on Tuesday afternoon, trading a third-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft and a future seventh-round selection to the Cleveland Browns in exchange for multi-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Amari Cooper and a 2025 day-three pick. The Bills have needed help in the wide receiver room since the beginning of the season, and now they have their man to bolster an offense led by one of the NFL's top talents at quarterback in Josh Allen.

Conversely, before this trade was announced, the New York Jets traded for superstar wide receiver Davante Adams, with the Jets giving the Raiders a conditional third-round pick that could become a second-round selection if Adams either becomes an All-Pro OR is starting in the AFC Championship Game.

Related: Instant analysis of Bills' acquisition of WR Amari Cooper

Buffalo was reportedly in the mix for Adams as well, but acquiring Cooper for the price they did was a far better option than trading for Adams for a litany of reasons.

First of all, the Jets will have to take on the remainder of Adams' contract, which equates to roughly $11.6 million in cap hit, after restructures take effect. This is big enough on its own because Buffalo couldn't afford to take on that kind of contract with its limited cap space. Instead, the Bills acquired Amari Cooper for less than $1 million on their salary cap ($806,667 to be precise); Buffalo still gets a game-altering pass-catcher for a fraction of the price.

Peter Casey-Imagn Images

Not only do the Bills save money by acquiring a younger (Cooper is 30, Adams is 31), cheaper receiver, but they've solved a large problem on their offense, which is the lack of a deep threat and generally reliable option. Currently this season, Cooper leads the league in 473 yards on incomplete targets, which points to his previous quarterback Deshaun Watson being unable to hit him in stride.

This won't be an issue with Allen throwing him the ball, so Cooper's production should go through the roof, benefitting the Bills in numerous ways on ALL sides of the ball. Cooper's presence benefits Buffalo's offense both individually and in a grander sense, allowing the team's previous pass-catchers to settle into more auspicious roles; acquiring Adams would have accomplished these tasks as well, but at several times the price.

Adams certainly wouldn't have been a bad acquisition, but resulting discourse likely would have come with caveats; conversely, there doesn't seem to be any hiccups with the Cooper trade. It's a good day to be a Bills fan, as it looks as though the team has defeated the Jets twice in the last 24 hours.

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