ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The Buffalo Bills trade for Amari Cooper is already Josh Allen-approved.
"It's Amari Cooper, so we're very excited about that," Allen said with a smile Wednesday.
The feeling's mutual for Cooper.
"It's just that feeling of having a fresh beginning," Cooper said later on during his first day with the team. "A new start. A blank canvas that you get to control your destiny."
Allen and Cooper are now expected to be the Bills top receiving connection.
While they don't have much of a relationship yet, Cooper quite familiar with his new quarterback's game.
"It's phenomenal every time I turn on the television and watch him play," Cooper said. "He plays with a lot of grit. A lot of hustle. He plays hard. Obviously he's been one of the top quarterbacks in the game for a while now. Just to be able to play with him and experience that in person I think is going to be real cool."
The question is how quickly can the Bills get an impact from their new wide out?
General Manager Brandon Beane said Wednesday afternoon that the wide receiver position is one of the hardest to get a grasp on this complex Bills offense, especially quickly. That's partially why Beane made the move to acquire Cooper now rather than wait until closer to the NFL's Nov. 5 trade deadline.
Cooper has experience being traded to a team midseason, but joined the Cowboys in 2018 during their bye week, using that as a way to get up to speed.
That's not the case this time around.
"This is definitely new to me, but at the end of the day it's just football," Cooper said. "I think I'm a prety cerebrial guy. Cereberial enough to learn the playbook as fast as I can so I can go out there and get lined up and just run routes, catch the ball, get open, and compete in the run game."
Allen added: "When you got a guy like him who's as good as he is, it's not so much about the body language and getting on the same page. He's going to find ways to get open. I'm going to try and get him the ball. I think it's just incorporating him into our offensive scheme and him understanding what he has to do on every given play."
Cooper is a five-time Pro Bowler who has gone over 1,000 receiving yards in a season seven times, including four of the last five years.
That's the resume of a number one target.
The Bills passing game has been operating this season with the "Everybody Eats" mentality, one that is centered around distributing the ball to many rather than largely funneling targets to one.
You could argue that hasn't worked through six games, with the Bills ranked 25th in the NFL in passing at 186.3 yards per game. Just two WRs have over 200 yards (Khalil Shakir 249 and Keon Coleman 201).
However, Beane said the trade for Cooper isn't a reflection on that group.
"Separate of Amari, I really do like our guys in the mix," Beane said. "It's early in the season. Just like an OL, you're still forming everything. We had so many new pieces in that receiver room other that Shakir, so in fairness to those guys, we're still early in the season just getting going."
And while Allen is excited and understands the caliber of player Cooper is, he too not looking at the addition as a shift away from what the Bills already have.
"I think it's going to help us regardless because defenses obviously know who he is," Allen said. "We're going to try and get him his, but everyone else is still going to get theirs and I think that's the most important thing. I'm still just trying to throw it to the open guy, but I think having a type of guy like him whose done it consistently over the course of career and he's done it at a high level, is going to help everybody in this building on the offensive side of the ball."
While Sean McDermott said Wednesday it has yet to be determined whether or not Cooper will make his Bills debut Sunday, expect to see him out there in some capacity against the Titans.