New Bills WR Amari Cooper feels reinvigorated following trade from Browns

Recently acquired Buffalo Bills wide receiver Amari Cooper is excited about his "fresh beginning" with his new club.

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The stretch of Interstate 90 that runs along Lake Erie and connects Cleveland to Buffalo is not necessarily scenic, but the physical surroundings that encompass that portion of freeway weren’t paramount on Amari Cooper’s mind as he made the three-hour trek Tuesday night.

He was instead thinking about the opportunity ahead of him on what he described as an “introspective” drive. The five-time Pro Bowl wide receiver, who was traded from the Browns to the Bills on Tuesday afternoon, is leaving a moribund 1-5 Cleveland team that’s currently deploying the NFL’s worst statistical offense and joining a Buffalo aerial attack helmed by an otherwordly signal-caller in Josh Allen. He immediately projects as the former All-Pro’s primary wide receiver, a favorable situation for a seven-time 1,000-yard wide receiver who’s set to be an unrestricted free agent at the conclusion of the season.

Related: How a 2015 meeting played into Bills’ acquisition of WR Amari Cooper

Being traded mid-season, though not a new experience for Cooper, is still a whirlwind of emotions, and the 30-year-old is attempting to sort his thoughts as he starts his adjustment to a new organization.

“I’m still taking it all in, a little bit,” Cooper told reporters Wednesday afternoon. “Getting traded in the middle of the season, it’s definitely a fast turnaround, so I don’t know if I’ve had enough time to really process it. At the end of the day, it’s just football.”

Change is never easy. Cooper must now learn a new offense on the fly and develop a rapport with a quarterback he’s never before played with. He’s being counted on to be the alpha wide receiver in a passing attack that’s been one of the league’s best in recent years. It’s a lot of pressure for the veteran, but he’s welcoming it, especially considering the fact that he’s leaving a team that’s going nowhere fast in favor of a club with Lombardi Trophy aspirations.

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“The goal of playing in the NFL is to win, so to come in and be on a winning team, it’s obviously a good feeling. It’s not a bad feeling,” Cooper said. ". . . [The trade] did kind of like reinvigorate me. It motivated me, for sure.”

Cooper has been one of the league’s most consistently productive receivers since being selected by the then-Oakland Raiders with the fourth overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, besting 1,000 receiving yards in all but two of his professional seasons and topping 1,110 yards in four of the last five campaigns. Now serving as a primary option in an offense led by (potentially) the best quarterback he’s ever played with, Cooper feels a renewed energy, with the opportunity to compete for a championship being among the bevy of reasons why.

“It does 100% [reinvigorate me] for several reasons, actually,” Cooper said. “It’s just that feeling of having a fresh beginning, a new start, blank canvas that you get to control your destiny.”

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