The arms race between the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets has escalated. It all happened in the span of mere hours. The Jets made headlines in the late morning by landing 6x Pro Bowler Davante Adams, at last. The Bills shot right back and added 4x Pro Bowler Amari Cooper. The night before, the Bills sealed a tight win against the Jets to claim a two-win lead over the AFC East. Here are a pair of twin trades that threaten to shift that power balance, or not.
Even by Jets standards, this season has been something of a disaster. Aaron Rodgers’ stint with New York is off to a rough start as the Jets slide to 2-4 while he plays some of his most inefficient football in years with a 9:5 TD-INT ratio. Controversially, head coach Robert Saleh was made the first scapegoat when he was fired after Week 5, but it hasn’t seemed to alleviate any of the Jets’ problems. They look to reinvigorate their season with Davante Adams at the price of only a third-round pick, reuniting the old Green Bay tandem of Rodgers and Adams.
Meanwhile, Josh Allen leads the Bills to a strong start, avoiding even a single interception in the process. Buffalo hasn’t missed a beat after losing Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis in the offseason, but I think they feared losing gas and trading for an Amari Cooper bargain gives them terrific chances at retaining their division champ. Adams may not be enough to push the Jets over the hump through all their disarray, which now includes trade exploration from Haasan Reddick.
But there’s a lot of storyline in the personal journey of both players. Adams and Cooper have somewhat fizzled out since they arrived at the Las Vegas Raiders and Cleveland Browns respectively. They’ve struggled with inconsistent quarterback play and disarrayed, poorly run organization, which have caused a developmental halt in their careers.
In his opening press conference with the Jets, Adams said, “It’s been a roller coaster, for sure. It’s a weird thing to say that I’m happy, but obviously it was time for a change. This whole thing transpired a little weird, but at the end of the day, we’re in a better place.”
Cooper was a bit more cryptic, posting an Instagram story of a black screen with text that reads, “Move or rust.” Adams and Cooper sent the same message. They were given an escape from the slums of the NFL into a fresh start, revitalizing the latter end of their careers. Meanwhile, the Jets look to lift their season out of crisis. The Bills look to thwart it.
