It was a busy day on the wide receiver news front on Tuesday, leaving fantasy football managers reeling as the Buffalo Bills made a move to acquire star WR Amari Cooper from the Cleveland Browns — just hours after news dropped that the Jets All-Pro had acquired Davante Adams.
It’s a fresh start for Cooper, who has been languished this year by a Browns offense that went nowhere fast, while Bills QB Josh Allen gets a new weapon following the offseason trade of Stefon Diggs to the Houston Texans.
What does it mean for your fantasy football teams? Let’s dive in.
Josh Allen’s floor as a passer is going up
While QB Josh Allen is the ultimate playmaker who has gotten the most out of his versatile group of receivers, there is little doubt that the addition of Cooper significantly raises his level as a passer.
In just six games this season, Allen has already posted as many finishes as QB19 or worse than last season, and it’s clear that a lot of that has to do with limitations in the passing game. Through six weeks, Allen is on a 17-game pace for just 3,287 passing yards (28 TD, 0 INT) – with his passing yards and touchdown hitting their lowest marks since his second NFL season, in 2019. Adding Cooper to the offense will be the limit playing time for Mack Hollins (Marquez Valdes-Scantling was released a few hours after the trade) while giving rookie Keon Coleman a cushion across from him.
Amari Cooper is allowed Actually see some catchable targets
Cooper’s jump in value is also easy to diagnose. Pretty much any human on the planet would be an upgrade to the quality of Cooper’s targets (probably including me); his target percentage of 60% ranks in the 15th percentile among wide receivers this season, per PFF.
An upgrade to an MVP-caliber quarterback like Allen? Yes, that’s it enormous.
Cooper is a seasoned pro who should get used to the Bills offense soon enough. Despite being 30 years old, Cooper is used to being the focal point of his respective offenses. Expect Cooper to produce a weekly WR2 with WR1 upside catches from a technician like Allen, who isn’t afraid to hurl “YOLO” balls at his top receiver even when the play breaks down.
As for the other Bills pass catchers, continue to use Khalil Shakir as a flex-worker (who may benefit from the defensive attention Cooper gets) and Dalton Kincaid as a mid-range TE1 after having 5+ targets in each of his last four . games. There should still be plenty of targets, although the addition of Cooper makes that target volume a bit more volatile than it was in the first six weeks of the season.
David Njoku wins for the Browns… sort of
I feel obligated to call a winner for the Browns just because Cooper’s departure will leave some targets up for grabs.
The problem? Those goals come from QB Deshaun Watson, who for some unknown For this reason, he has yet to be benched, despite ranking last in the league with 5.1 yards per pass attempt, ranking in the top five in pass completion rate (22.2%) and leading the league in bags with 31 bags taken. Ouch.
Expect offseason acquisition Jerry Jeudy to lead teams on the perimeter in short order as the new “WR1,” while second-year WR Cedric Tillman could see an increase in snaps, though he hasn’t been efficient with the opportunities he’s been creating has received so far. Elijah Moore should maintain his role as the primary slot option. All of which is to say… don’t expect much to change from a personnel perspective that matters much to fantasy.
What might be notable is the fact that TE David Njoku has run the seventh-highest percentage of his routes (21.7%) among tight ends with 10+ targets, and that percentage could certainly increase if not for Kuiper. When healthy, Njoku should be a consideration every week if you don’t have a locked-and-loaded starter, especially given his chance for a bigger target share.
All things considered, the Browns offense is bad enough right now that there are no real winners. Sorry, Cleveland.
