Amari Cooper Top Landing Spots: 2025 NFL Free Agency Outlook

March 11, 2025

Which teams are potential landing spots for Buffalo Bills wide receiver Amari Cooper for fantasy football? John breaks down all the top landing spots for Amari Cooper.

Buffalo Bills wide receiver Amari Cooper has a good chance of not being re-signed by the team that traded for him in the middle of the 2024 NFL season. In the event they don't, there are other teams that could use his services in the twilight of his career to improve their passing offense. There are still quite a few WR-needy teams remaining.

How much he has left in the tank is a different question entirely, but there are teams that are making wideouts like Kayshon Boutte, Kendrick Bourne, Mack Hollins, and other extremely questionably talented pass-catchers integral parts of their offenses. Did I mention WR Quentin Johnston still has a prominent role in an NFL offense? Sometimes, catching the ball isn't totally a requirement, I guess.

Making some guys catch strays aside, Cooper will be 31 to start the NFL season. I can think of at least one receiver that's had an excellent season, or at least huge games, in their age-31 year in the NFL. Chicago Bears wide receiver Keenan Allen in 2023 comes to mind, when he had over 1,200 receiving yards for the Los Angeles Chargers before he was traded. Anyway, let's dive into the best landing spots for fantasy football for Cooper, which totally won't be the same as a lot of the best spots for Allen!

Los Angeles Chargers

So yeah, here we go again. The Chargers are simply the best landing spot for any WR ahead of the 2025 NFL season. In my mind, this landing spot competed very closely with that of the Washington Commanders, yet they decided to trade for former San Francisco 49ers wideout Deebo Samuel Sr. I'm not convinced that he's completely washed, as a bout with pneumonia perfectly aligned with a serious fall-off in his production last year, and his team was severely injury-riddled as well.

Deebo Samuel - Nobody's talking about his mid-season pneumonia.

But that's big. And it showed.
Pre (5 games): 77 ypg
Post (10 games): 44

In '23 he put up 1100 total yds w/12 TDs
'22 up and down
'21 breakout

Not much evidence that the production ceiling has sunk#Commanders

— Deepak Chona, MD. SportsMedAnalytics (@SportMDAnalysis) March 2, 2025

Before this article becomes about Samuel, I just wanted to point out why Washington isn't such a great landing spot any more. Instead, it's the Chargers, who outside of WR Ladd McConkey, who's been excellent, have no one else to throw the ball to that can consistently win on their routes, get open, and catch the ball. The aforementioned Johnston can't do any of these things, though he was forced the ball a bit and had some busted coverages result in big plays.

McConkey is perfectly capable of playing outside, but he's one of the NFL's best "short-area quickness" wide receivers, capable of changing direction with incredible suddenness. He's extremely twitchy, owing to his immense athleticism, and his ideal playing weight is 25 pounds lighter than Cooper's. Cooper would be a better fit playing on the outside mostly. His bigger frame and better strength allow him to excel in contested catch situations, something that Johnston can't do at all.

If the Bills decide to bring back Amari Cooper they have to use him more like this⬇️#BillsMafia | #GoBills
pic.twitter.com/dknBv7czUC

— Peter DiBiasi (@DibiasiPeter) February 15, 2025

The trio of Cooper, McConkey, and Johnston seems pretty solid, if you exclude Johnston, who probably wouldn't get a ton of targets and mostly is better suited for doing some cardio, anyway. His size at least demands some amount of coverage, though defenses aren't overly scared of him. Still, if Los Angeles decides not to take a receiver early in the 2025 NFL Draft, Cooper would be a good fit.

New England Patriots

The Patriots are like the Chargers, but for the third time today, I have to repeat that the Patriots have no one to throw the ball to. They had the worst pass-catcher corps in the NFL. Tight ends Hunter Henry and Austin Hooper and wide receivers DeMario Douglas, Kayson Boutte, Kendrick Bourne, and now... Mack Hollins, still are a group that no other team are envious of.

New England Patriots Wide Receiver Depth Chart to ‘help out’ Drake Maye:

WR1 Mack Hollins
WR2 Kayshon Boutte
WR3 DeMario Douglas
WR4 Ja’Lynn Polk
WR5 Kendrick Bourne
WR6 Javon Baker

Seriously… WTF is that?? pic.twitter.com/W7wfSxaCGP

— John Frascella (Football) (@NFLFrascella) March 11, 2025

Maye still doesn't have anyone he's overly excited to throw the ball to. He played well in 2024, which is why I like this spot so much for a receiver that can actually threaten a defense consistently. Maye could develop into a top-10 quarterback pretty quickly. The fact that he ever looked good at all was a miracle. In addition to his poor WR group, he had the worst offensive line in football. Even worse than the Chicago Bears group, though they've since solved that problem.

Pass protection composite ratings.

Congrats to Bo Nix. Better luck next time Drake Maye. pic.twitter.com/xydOOHGFXI

— Computer Cowboy (@benbbaldwin) January 7, 2025

By a wide margin, the Pats had the worst offensive line in football. It remains to be seen how they address this, and the moves they've made so far have been to bolster the defense, so I'm somewhat skeptical that they have a good one next year. Still, Cooper doesn't necessarily need to be on a team with an OL that can hold off the pass-rush for long periods.

He's a route-running technician, and some of his speed has faded with age. Timing routes, quick separation, and crisp, fluid, and twitchy movements define his game. He'd likely get hammered with targets, as Maye would be happy to send passes to a better target.

Seattle Seahawks

The Seahawks traded away WR DK Metcalf to the Pittsburgh Steelers and released wideout Tyler Lockett ahead of the 2025 season. The only pass-catcher of note that remains on their roster is Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and he's perhaps best suited staying mostly in the slot, since he's much more productive there than he is on the perimeter.

Jaxon Smith Njigba’s 2024 breakout szn

- 100 catches (9th)
- 1,130 yards (12th)
- 6 TDs

- 2.2% drop rate

- Led all WRs in receptions from the slot pic.twitter.com/spUOV4SxfI https://t.co/jSXLfQnS1j

— xyn🐍 (@alleniverxyn) February 20, 2025

JSN's lack of speed (>4.5-second 40-yard-dash) doesn't make him best suited for playing outside. We've seen "slower" WRs have major success in the slot, though. Smith-Njigba is an excellent route-runner, and excels at separating on horizontal-breaking routes. In the slot, there's simply more room to work with and more space on either side to get open quickly.

It seems that Seattle is likely to address the position in the draft, but having a lot of good wideouts is a good problem to have. They could benefit from the extra depth in case of injury even if they draft another WR, and there's no guarantee that whoever they pick will end up being successful.

I don’t know why, but I’ve just got a feeling we will be getting an Amari Cooper breakout game

He’s been waiting patiently this entire playoff run, bound to happen pic.twitter.com/WRuh3yeA0Q

— BillsMuse (@BillsMusee) January 26, 2025

A veteran presence would also help develop their young wideouts. Guys like WR Jake Bobo and whoever they draft, and even Smith-Njigba, would benefit from the presence of a long-time veteran. And Cooper has been one of the game's best students throughout his career.

Also, quarterback Sam Darnold, despite all the bad things I've said about him (which are true, that he can't deal with pressure), was statistically an excellent deep-ball thrower last season. JSN wasn't a great deep threat. The loss of Metcalf thus creates a big hole in the offense that needs to be filled, and it can at least partially be done so by Cooper. Maybe.

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