Grading the trade: Bills make a move to bolster Buffalo’s Super Bowl chances after acquiring underrated veteran at deadline
The Buffalo Bills are fresh off a Monday Night Football win and sitting atop the AFC East. We ran their deadline deal for a veteran ballhawk through the A to Z Sports NFL Trade Simulator.
The Buffalo Bills picked up a big win over the Minnesota Vikings on Monday Night Football, and they sit atop the AFC East. Even so, the Bills are not standing pat on NFL trade deadline day.
Per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, who was first to break the news, they have traded for standout Titan safety, former Titan safety Amani Hooker.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter followed with the details: the Bills are trading a 2nd-round pick for Amani Hooker and a 5th-round pick.
Amani Hooker facts (via Adam Schefter)
- Spent all eight seasons of his NFL career with the Tennessee Titans.
- Has 17 career interceptions
- Has five interceptions this season.
- Picked off Joe Burrow three times in his last game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
What the A to Z Sports NFL Trade Simulator says about the Amani Hooker deal
In full transparency, we ran this deal through the A to Z Sports NFL Trade Simulator. Buffalo gets Hooker and a 2027 fifth-round pick. Tennessee gets a 2027 second-round pick.
The simulator scores this as a giant win for the Titans, and it should. Landing a second-round pick for a veteran safety at this stage of his career is a strong return for a team going nowhere this season.
Still, I don’t mind this move at all for Buffalo, and I’ll explain why.
Hooker is quietly one of the better veteran safeties in the NFL. He has been productive for years in Tennessee, and he is playing some of his best football right now. Five interceptions in a season is impressive enough. Three of them coming in one game against a quarterback like Burrow tells you he is in rhythm and seeing the field as well as anybody at his position.
Why Amani Hooker is a perfect fit for the Bills’ defense
On Monday night, Jim Leonhard had his defenders all over the field. Yes, we can talk about the caliber of opponent. The Vikings just traded for Kirk Cousins, which tells you how rough Monday night was for Minnesota.
That’s neither here nor there, though, because the secondary in Buffalo has been a problem. I don’t need to tell Bills fans that. It has been a problem for years.
Hooker is a sensible addition for that reason. He is a proven veteran, and proven veterans are the right kind of target at the trade deadline. He can walk into the building and pick up the system quickly. Most importantly, he generates turnovers.
When you don’t have the players to win in man coverage or to run exotic looks on the back end, you need players who can get in there and take the ball away. Hooker does exactly that, and Buffalo needed exactly that.
Final grade for the Bills’ trade for Amani Hooker
I understand why the trade simulator leans heavily in favor of the Titans. Tennessee got real draft capital for a player who doesn’t fit its timeline, and that’s a fine piece of business on its end.
But the Bills are not grading this deal on a draft value chart. They are among the best teams in the AFC and a true Super Bowl candidate, and a second-round pick is a reasonable price for a player who can fix a weakness that has haunted this defense for years.
The way I see it, this is a move that can change the direction of Buffalo’s season. If Hooker keeps taking the ball away at this rate, nobody in Western New York will remember what the Bills gave up in January.
I love it. Final grade: A+ for the Buffalo Bills.
