Trade-A-Palooza's Biggest Winners, and Losers After Davante Adams, Amari Cooper Blockbusters
The AFC East Race Enters a New Phase After Buffalo Bills and New York Jets Blockbuster Moves
An arms race has broken out in the AFC East.
Hours after the New York Jets pried Aaron Rodgers’ favorite target, Davante Adams from the Las Vegas Raiders in hopes of making up ground to the division-leading Buffalo Bills they had lost to 15 hours earlier at MetLife Stadium, Buffalo’s counterstrike may wind up widening the gap after trading for Amari Cooper.
Four franchises altered, an AFC Playoff Race intensified.
Now that we have all head three days to digest the moves, let’s take a deeper look into the biggest winners and losers from this pair of blockbuster trades that have the potential to make a monumental impact on the remainder of this season.
Josh Allen: Winner
Life is good for Josh Allen right now.
Even after Allen needed to duck into a Times Square Phone Booth (Yes, such things still exist) to don his SuperMan cape to account for all three of Buffalo’s touchdowns in a 23-20 win over the Jets in East Rutherford, the MVP caliber quarterback may not need to consistently morph into hero mode to be successful for Buffalo the rest of the way.
Cooper, who has accounted for 250 receiving yards and two touchdowns despite his quarterback being Deshaun Watson, immediately vaults to the top of the Bills’ receiver depth chart, sliding into the role of playmaker formerly occupied by Stefon Diggs.
Khalil Shakir: Loser
Shakir entered this season heralded as the Bills’ answer for trading Diggs to the Texans, as the kind of consistently savvy veteran receiver capable of big plays from time to time but also a targets and yards after the catch machine.
Through six games, Shakir has been … average.
Shakir’s two touchdowns and 249 receiving yards haven’t exactly elevated the Bills’ offense, and given what the Bills have invested in rookie Keon Coleman and the fact that Cooper now becomes Wide Receiver 1, it seems that Shakir may be most likely to see his role and targets diminished as this season rolls along.
Aaron Rodgers: Winner
Rodgers finally reunites with Adams, the most prolific target of his Hall of Fame career, after months — if not years of speculation.
Other than losing two consecutive games, this has been a pretty stellar two weeks for Rodgers.
After all, Robert Saleh was unceremoniously relieved of his duties last week, and now lame duck general manager Joe Douglas pushes every last chip into the middle of the table hoping to salvage a season slipping from the Jets’ grasp and potentially his job, in the process.
Antonio Pierce: Loser
By contrast, it’s been an abysmally brutal couple of weeks to be Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce.
Beyond now needing to find a way to manufacture wins and build a culture after jettisoning the offense’s premier playmaker and most dangerous weapon in the passing game, Pierce needs to find a way to build a culture with a carousel of mediocre quarterback play spinning at the speed of light between Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew. If that weren’t rough enough, there’s some speculation new minority owner Tom Brady would prefer to hire Bill Belichick as head coach, as early as 2025.
Of all the parties involved in this week’s wide receiver trade-a-palooza, I’m not sure anyone’s situation has been more negatively impacted than Pierce’s.
PODCAST
and I go deep on the Davante Adams trade (hours before Cooper was shipped off to the Buffalo Bills), where the Detroit Lions go from here after losing Aidan Hutchinson, and I sit down with Los Angeles Rams safety Quentin Lake to get his thoughts on how the Rams turn their season around and his elevation to being voted a defensive captain. It was a fun episode, hope you enjoy it, and please subscribe to Mike Tanier’s Too Deep Zone. Promise you won’t regret it. Keon Coleman: Winner
On the surface, it may seem like Coleman’s could be dinged by Amari Cooper’s arrival.
However, so far this season, Coleman has played just four percent of his snaps from the slot, where an argument can be made he’d be more effective given his 6-foot-3 and 213-pound frame as a matchup nightmare, particularly against sometimes undersized nickel corners as well as in the red zone.
Cooper’s presence is going to demand safeties shade coverage to his side of the field, so, with Coleman struggling it be on the outside, the first-round pick may benefit from moving into the slot where he may find more room to operate because of Cooper drawing coverage to his side of the field.
Kevin Stefanski: Loser
Yes, Kevin Stefanski won Coach of The Year last season. But, does anyone really believe he is a Super Bowl caliber head coach, particularly when saddled with what might be the worst quarterback situation in the league?
There’s no getting around the Deshaun Watson albatross that hangs around the Browns’ collective necks.
And now, the Browns must decide whether to make a half-assed run at the postseason after trading away arguably the premier wide receiver on the depth chart, or plant the ‘everything must go’ fire-sale sign outside of team headquarters and tear the whole thing down, knowing full-well that they’re stuck with Watson for the next two seasons.
Stefanski likely wasn’t winning with Amari Cooper, given that Watson is his quarterback, but where are the goalposts now to retain him? What’s the upside for this franchise as long as they haven’t drafted a rookie quarterback for a reputed quarterback whisperer of a head coach to develop?
Amari Cooper: Biggest Winner of All
No deep analytics dive necessary here … Cooper goes from wallowing in an offense with a quarterback who frequently tossed worm-burners his direction on a team that hasn’t scored 20 points in a single game yet this season (yes, you read that right, and yes it’s accurate) to emerging as JOSH ALLEN’s top target on a legitimate Super Bowl contender. Ball game. Cooper’s situation has upgraded the most. Period. Full Stop.
