Brandon Beane had a line ready for a quiet trade deadline. He didn’t need it.
The Buffalo Bills general manager said that at noon Tuesday he “didn’t feel great” about getting a deal done, a year after he stood pat at the deadline and left his press conference frustrated. By the 3 p.m. CT cutoff, Buffalo had landed Amani Hooker from Tennessee for a second-round pick, with a fifth-rounder coming back.
“I felt like I was going to be walking in here today, and I was going to make sure you guys put your guns and knives away,” Beane said in his deadline press conference.
How Brandon Beane got the Amani Hooker deal done
Beane said he talked with the Titans last week, but Tennessee wasn’t motivated after it had just traded Jeffery Simmons and wanted to “calm the waters.” A call with Titans executive Dave Ziegler on Tuesday morning restarted the conversation, and the deal picked up “sometime after 1:00.” To make the money work, Buffalo restructured Dion Dawkins’ contract the same afternoon.
Beane compared Hooker to a former Bills favorite. “Instincts, ball skills, you’re going to think I’m describing Micah Hyde,” he said. He also liked that Hooker comes with two more years on his contract, which makes this more than a rental.
We went through both teams’ defensive numbers, and Hooker’s five interceptions in seven games with Tennessee nearly match Buffalo’s team total of six through eight games. Three of those picks came in one afternoon against Joe Burrow, a game Beane joked “might have hurt our opportunities” by raising the price. We wrote last week that Buffalo was linked to the Titans safety right after that performance.
Beane said the team’s 7-1 start had nothing to do with the decision. “If we were four and three, I would still make this move today,” he said, before tying it to Josh Allen’s window. “I would hate for us to waste a year.”
Our take: this is the right kind of aggressive for Buffalo. The Bills paid a Day 2 pick for a starter under contract beyond this season, and they filled the spot that had been a problem since the C.J. Gardner-Johnson release. Hooker’s range should also free up Cole Bishop, giving the defense a versatile pairing at safety.
Whether Hooker plays Sunday against the Jets is still to be determined. Beane said that’ll depend on how quickly he picks up Jim Leonhard’s defense. “He’s going to have a lot of catching up to do,” Beane said, “but I know his DNA.”
More on the Buffalo Bills
- Is a B-Plus Fair for Bills After Amani Hooker Trade? His 5 Interceptions Make the Case
- Buffalo Bills Changed Protection as Vikings Relentlessly Blitzed Josh Allen
- Amani Hooker Gives Buffalo Bills a Versatile Pairing at Safety With Cole Bishop
- 2 Winners and 2 Losers From the Bills’ Amani Hooker Trade
