Amari Cooper to the Bills

Michael Ginnitti
Michael Ginnitti, Managing Editor & NFL/MLB ExpertOctober 16, 2024
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The Buffalo Bills bolstered their WR room Tuesday, acquiring Amari Cooper from the Cleveland Browns. The 30-year-old is in the final year of his 5 year, $100M contract, joining his 4th team since entering the league in 2015 with the Raiders. Cooper now joins Curtis Samuel, Khalil Shakir, Mack Hollins, & youngster Keon Coleman as Buffalo’s wide receiver set going forward.

The Trade Compensation

The Browns acquired a 2025 3rd round pick (originally Detroit’s), and a 2026 7th round pick from Buffalo, who picked up a 2025 6th round pick along with the right’s to Cooper.

Contractually, Cleveland set themselves up nicely to purchase a Top 100 draft pick this Fall. The Browns converted Cooper’s $20M base salary down to a minimum $1.21M, paying him the remainder in signing bonus. This means that the Bills now acquire Cooper at just:

2024: $806,667 (guaranteed)

In return, the Browns now take on dead cap hits of:

2024: $7,937,333 ($806,667 saved)
2025: $22,584,000 ($0 savings)

Before you gripe about the 2025 dead cap, the $22.5M was already baked into the cake long before the trade processed. The Browns processed two full salary cap conversions on Cooper’s contract (2022, 2024), adding voidable years in 2025-2028 to spread out the salary cap as much as possible. Outside of a multi-year contract extension, the $22.5M of dead cap would have hit Cleveland’s books next March regardless of him being traded or not.

The Browns Outlook

Cooper became somewhat expendable when the Browns acquired Jerry Jeudy from the Broncos this past Spring, and subsequently signed him to a 3 year, $52.5 million contract extension through 2027.

Cooper’s $22.5M dead cap hit for 2025 isn’t ideal, but neither is the $73M cap figure currently associated with QB Deshaun Watson. The Browns currently possess 9 cap hits north of $19M in 2025, factoring into -$40M of projected cap space for next season.

With the Watson contract being the albatross that it is, the time to start wondering if the Browns can continue to aggressively build (or even hold firm) a contending team even makes sense. They’re on a path to be drafting rather high in 2025 (currently #1 overall in fact), with 4 Top 100 picks under their belt right now, so a financial reset in some regard is in their near future.

But it shouldn’t be wrong to start questioning the futures of Denzel Ward, Myles Garrett, & certainly Deshaun Watson for the foreseeable future, as new contract requirements (or current full guarantees) come into focus. The most likely outcome for 2025? A dozen or so salary conversions to free up cap space, a few free agent additions & potential immediate starter draft picks (notably at running back and wide receiver), and another attempt at finding the right ingredients to get the most out of Deshaun Watson. Buckle up Cleveland.

The Bills Outlook

It can be argued that Cooper’s best stretch with the Browns came with Joe Flacco at QB, as he and Deshaun Watson never really found their stride. With all of that said, Amari Cooper caught 174 passes in 38 games for Cleveland, including 16 TDs over that span. Despite cresting the 30-years-old mark, he still possesses separation ability, and a yards after the catch threat.

It can now also be argued that Cooper is about to line up next to the best quarterback that he’s ever suited up with in Josh Allen. There’s a very real world where these two become instant favorites on the field, somewhat reviving the 1-2 punch that was Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs for the better part of 3 seasons.

From a positional standpoint going forward, Buffalo has Curtis Samuel mostly guaranteed through 2025, and Keon Coleman mostly guaranteed on his rookie deal through 2027. Khalil Shakir will be entering a contract year in 2025, and becomes extension eligible for the first time this winter as well, while Mack Hollins & Amari Cooper are slated for free agency next March.

Cooper is a tough player to evaluate from a contract projection standpoint, as the numbers are certainly there - but without much substance behind them. Furthermore, the track record for 30+ WRs cashing in sizable deals is small, though both Mike Evans and DeAndre Hopkins have done well in recent offseasons. Mathematically speaking, Cooper is a $15M player in our system, projecting toward a 2 year, $30M extension at the time of this article.

The Bills have a few mouths to feed next Spring (Greg Rousseau, Rasul Douglas most likely), but will be coming off of a 2024 offseason where “purge” and “reset” were the major themes. Signing a player like Cooper to a mid-level extension should very much be in the cards if the fit is right. Buffalo projects to just over $10M of 2025 cap space with 40 contracts on the books.


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