Amari Cooper has been here before. Not here as in Buffalo, but here as in a new town, on a new team, learning a new offense.
The Raiders traded him to the Cowboys, who traded him to the Browns, who this week traded him to the Bills.
Cooper said going from the 1-5 Browns to the 4-2 Bills has reinvigorated him.
“Yeah, it does. It does 100 percent for several reasons actually,” Cooper said Wednesday, via Alaina Getzenberg of ESPN. “It’s just that feeling of having a fresh beginning, a new start, a blank canvas that you get to control your destiny, you know?”
Cooper has caught passes from Derek Carr, Dak Prescott, Jacoby Brissett, Deshaun Watson and Joe Flacco. Now, he gets to play with Josh Allen.
“As far as the way [Allen] plays, I mean, it’s phenomenal,” Cooper said. “Every time I turn on the television and watch him play, he plays with a lot of grit, a lot of hustle. He plays hard, and obviously he’s been one of the top quarterbacks in the game for a while now. So, just to be able to play with him and experience that in person, I think it’s going to be real cool.”
The Bills rank 21st in total offense, including 25th in passing offense. They have missed Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis, who combined for 152 catches for 1,929 yards and 15 touchdowns last season.
Despite a down year, Cooper’s 24 catches for 250 yards and two touchdowns this season are more than any wideout on the Bills has.
The Bills will spend the week figuring out if Cooper is ready to go for Sunday.
“I would still have to kind of go through the week, get a routine, still learning the playbook and everything. I just got here, you know what I mean?” Cooper said. “So, I don’t really have an expectation right now that I can chalk up to being realistic until I go through the week. Obviously, if I had to answer the question, the expectation would just be to take it to take full advantage of my opportunities. That’s it. I don’t know what opportunities I would be blessed with for Sunday, but whatever it is, just take full advantage of it.”
