Bills have been big fans of new WR Amari Cooper ‘for a very long time’

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (WIVB) — Upon first impression, Amari Cooper’s understated personality made Brandon Beane suspect, “he doesn’t like us.” That didn’t deter the director of football operations for the Carolina Panthers from catching feelings for the top wide receiver prospect in the 2015 draft.

“Man, I’m sold,” Beane recalled telling Panthers receivers coach Ricky Proehl after they watched Cooper run routes and break down Xs and Os during their visit to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. “We just didn’t have the fourth pick in the draft that year,” the Bills general manager lamented.

A decade later, Beane got his guy. And the Bills got a needed upgrade to their receiver group when acquiring Cooper on Tuesday in a trade with the Cleveland Browns .

“I’ve been a big fan of his for a very long time,” said quarterback Josh Allen, who was still playing for Reedley Community College when Cooper entered the league. “Very smart, very detailed, and the way that he runs his routes, I think he can help us a lot.”

“He’s a multiple 1,000-yard receiver,” Allen added. “He’s a multiple Pro Bowl guy. We’ve got a few teammates that have been teammates with him before and just raved about him as a guy, as a character. So excited to have him in our locker room, and he’ll fit in quite nicely here.”

Beane acknowledged that the Bills also considered making a move for Davante Adams, but had “honed in on” Cooper before the Raiders traded Adams to the Jets. It was no small factor that Cooper will count less than $1 million against Buffalo’s salary cap in the final season of his renegotiated contract, while Adams’ deal carries cap figures of more than $3 million this year and $38 million in each of the next two seasons.

“That’s why this move made so much sense for us with where his salary is and where our salary cap is,” Beane said. “There’s no rule that we can’t sign him back as well. So we’ll just play it out this year, see how it fits on both sides. And there’s also the potential to get a comp pick off of it as well. So if we choose not to, or he wants to go sign somewhere else at the end, we could potentially play the comp game with him and get some of that back in the future draft.”

Buffalo’s passing game has struggled in recent weeks, and it became apparent that the playmaking void created by the offseason trade of star receiver Stefon Diggs could not be filled by draft pick Keon Coleman nor free agent additions Curtis Samuel, Mack Hollins and Marquez Valdes-Scantling, who was released to make room for Cooper.

“It doesn’t mean I didn’t like the group,” Beane said. “I can’t make a team like Cleveland do the deal. If we didn’t do this deal for him I still like our group.”

Neverthelesss, Cooper brings established production at a position where the Bills have been lacking.

“Knowing what type of caliber of a player that he is excites me,” Allen said. “But again, just another guy in this locker room that from what I can see so far, and what I’ve been told about him, is all about winning, and is going to do everything that he can to help this team win football games. And you get a group of men in this locker room, that all want the same thing and want to work towards the same goal. That’s a pretty powerful team.”

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