On a Tuesday in mid-October, the NFL had two massive wide receiver trades take place, which will impact the Indianapolis Colts this season.
Early on in the day, the New York Jets acquired Davante Adams from the Las Vegas Raiders. Then in the afternoon, the Cleveland Browns sent Amari Cooper to the Buffalo Bills.
Previously, these were two players that the Colts didn’t have to worry about this season. But now, Indianapolis will face Cooper in Week 10 and Adams in Week 11.
Adams has eclipsed the 1,100-yard mark in six straight seasons and has steadily been one of the top receivers in football during that span.
He is now reunited with Aaron Rodgers, who was under center in Green Bay during Adams’ most productive seasons. During Adams’ final two seasons with Rodgers, he totaled just shy of 3,000 receiving yards and totaled 29 touchdowns.
Cooper, meanwhile, has spent the last two-plus seasons in Cleveland, and before that, was with the Dallas Cowboys for three years. Since 2018, Cooper has surpassed the 1,100 yard mark in all but one season.
Wherever he has gone, Cooper has been heavily targeted, with at least 100 targets in nine of this first 10 seasons. He’s also coming off a career year in 2023 with 1,309 receiving yards.
The pass defense for the Colts was one of the big question marks coming into the season and this is a group that’s given up a lot of yards in 2024.
Indianapolis is not too far removed from a three game stretch where Caleb Williams, Justin Fields, and Trevor Lawrence combined for over 1,000 passing yards against this secondary.
The Colts will enter Week 7 allowing 7.3 yards per pass attempt–the eighth most in football–along with the seventh-most total passing yards per game. In these games, the play of the pass rush will be crucial to helping out the secondary.