Despite trading for wide receiver Amari Cooper, the Buffalo Bills haven’t quite ended the “everyone eats” era on offense, they’ve simply made the plate a little bigger. With Cooper, every current wide receiver moves down one spot on the depth chart, creating more favorable matchups. But now the Bills have a downfield target that the defense has to respect.

So what will change with Amari Cooper in a Bills uniform? This is my turn, because even though there may be a few negative aspects, things are about to get a lot more exciting.

No more Mr. Nice Guy

Josh Allen is known to have not thrown an interception this season despite throwing 47 throws in his last 50 games, a bogeyman that has sparked countless debates in forums, on the radio and in national media coverage. It’s been beaten to death, but Allen’s turnovers rarely pose a real problem for the team. Allen has regularly thrown his interceptions in low-leverage situations, and his high volume as a passer leads to larger “raw” interception numbers.

Buffalo ranks in the bottom 10 in punts per game after having the fewest punts in the league last season – an obvious trade-off for Allen’s interceptions. Punts and less damaging interceptions are almost the same thing as they both give up possession.

Fewer interceptions may help Allen’s MVP narrative this season, but that has nothing to do with greater efficiency. The fact that he has thrown zero this year is a combination of some luck and a lower number of pass attempts overall. But that doesn’t mean Allen played it safe. Per Professional football focus (PFF), Allen has 10 “turnover-worthy” plays (fourth most) – a subjective but measured way to quantify getting the ball into the danger zone.

According to NFL Pro/Next Gen Stats, Allen is fifth in passes attempted over 20 yards downfield, but he has the seventh-lowest completion rate on deep passes – and he averages the longest time to throw them (4.03 seconds). per 20-plus yard throw).

These numbers seem to illustrate the main reason why One Bills Drive chose Amari Cooper. They want to throw the ball deep, but haven’t managed it with the necessary consistency. Allen has been pretty accurate on his deep balls this year, but his receivers are bottom 10 in the NFL in separation on those throws, and they made it more difficult than it needed to be.

Cooper is a natural remedy for this problem as he ran the fourth-most vertical routes in 2024. The problem for him was obviously playing for a terrible offense with no rhythm and a terrible quarterback. Cooper has just one catch on 11 deep route targets for 24 yards this season. He also struggled with drops and missed six passes in six games, a worst mark in the NFL.

In comparison, Bills outside receivers Mack Hollins and Keon Coleman have a combined 10 scores on passes of 20+ yards and just one combined catch. Hollins leads the team with 55 vertical routes, but is much lower than Cooper’s 94.

Of course, it helps that the Bills controlled games early and weren’t forced to pass frequently like the Cleveland Browns did every week. However, the gap is still significant for just six weeks of football.

More deep balls mean Allen will fall to the interception gods again, but the offense as a whole becomes a much bigger threat.