Browns Trade Amari Cooper To The Bills: What Does This Mean For Fantasy?
In a WHIRLWIND day around the NFL that already saw Davante Adams traded to the Jets and Russell Wilson announced as the Steelers starter, we now have another monster trade to report. Cleveland Browns wide receiver Amari Cooper has been traded from the Browns to the Buffalo Bills.
After the Bills defeated the Jets on Monday Night Football, both teams have now turned and traded for new top wide receivers. We’ve already broken down the fantasy impact of the Adams trade, so let’s dig into the impact of the Amari Cooper trade for fantasy football as well.
First, here are the details of the trade compensation.
Amari Cooper To Bills
Buffalo Bills Get
- Amari Cooper
- 2025 6th Round Pick
Cleveland Browns Get
- 2025 3rd Round Pick
- 2026 7th Round Pick
Buffalo Bills Fantasy Implications
Fantasy Football Winners
The Bills had struggled to find their identity in the passing game following the departure of top wide receiver Stefon Diggs. Keon Coleman has not lived up to his high draft billing so far and while guys like Khalil Shakir and Dalton Kincaid have provided much spark in the intermediate area, the Bills went out and got a new top option for Josh Allen.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it’s easy to see why this is good news for Amari Cooper. Deshaun Watson has been the stone worst statistical quarterback in the NFL so far this season.
We’re not worried so much about targets when it comes to running backs as we are opportunities - especially opportunities to score. We often say that “running is the luxury of the winning team” so anything that can help the Bills move the football and put up a lead is good for the running back group.
Fantasy Football Losers
- Bills Pass Catchers
There’s really no way to add a player of this magnitude and the targets he commands without it being a downgrade for the pass catchers as a whole. It’s a vote of no-confidence for the guys in the building right now at the very least. Keon Coleman takes the biggest hit as a guy with the most overlapping skills with Cooper, but it certainly trickles down to Khalil Shakir, Dalton Kincaid and Mack Hollins as well.
Cleveland Browns Fantasy Implications
Fantasy Football Winners
The most fantasy relevant winner here is likely David Njoku as he was already the closest to the fantasy-relevant radar. The question was whether he or Jerry Jeudy would be the second target on this team behind Amari Cooper, but now that path is clearer than ever.
Cedric Tillman will now get a much bigger opportunity than he saw before as he was the other split end option on this team behind Amari. He goes from not playing a whole lot to potentially having a full-time role on the outside.
Jerry Jeudy and Elijah Moore both have overlapping skill sets to some degree so their roles as the slot/flanker options don’t change much. What does change is the quantity of targets available to these players. The quality does not change though, unless we see Jameis Winston.
Fantasy Football Losers
I did not think it was possible for Deshaun Watson to become a bigger loser for fantasy football than he has already been. Yet here we are.
- Browns Running Backs
This puts a damper on the return of Nick Chubb, no doubt. Perhaps there will be some more targets to go around but the idea of this offense having any offensive success is not promising after trading away their best pass catcher.