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ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The Buffalo Bills acquired safety Amani Hooker and a 2027 fifth-round pick from the Tennessee Titans on Tuesday in exchange for a 2027 second-round pick. Both teams announced the trade before the NFL deadline passed.
Hooker, 28, has five interceptions this season, tied for the most in the NFL. Three of them came in Tennessee’s 43-36 overtime loss to the Cincinnati Bengals on Nov. 1.
To fit Hooker’s salary, Buffalo restructured the contract of left tackle Dion Dawkins, Bills general manager Brandon Beane said. Buffalo (7-1) made the move a day after its 23-6 win at the Minnesota Vikings on Monday night.
Hooker is signed through the 2028 season. According to the Bills, the trade is the most draft capital Beane has used to acquire a player in-season at the deadline. Buffalo sent third-round picks in deadline deals in 2023 and 2024.
Brandon Beane Compares Amani Hooker To Micah Hyde
Hooker played at Iowa, where he was named the Big Ten’s Defensive Back of the Year in 2018. Tennessee drafted him in the fourth round in 2019. Over his first eight NFL seasons, all with the Titans, he totaled 17 interceptions, 45 pass breakups, and five forced fumbles in 103 regular-season games.
Beane met with reporters Tuesday at Kaleida Health Performance Center after the deadline.
“He’s a player that has instincts, ball skills,” Beane said. “You’re going to think I’m describing Micah Hyde with so many similarities of Iowa, taking the ball away. He’s just been a very steady player. We really liked him coming out.”
Hooker projects to play beside third-year safety Cole Bishop, according to the Bills.
“This is a great marriage,” Beane explained. “Amani can play the deep post, and track that ball, instincts, ball skills, intelligence, all those things. So, I think it’s a very good pairing…That is the value of a Cole Bishop, that he does have the versatility to kind of do both in Jim’s (Leonhard) defense.”
Buffalo plays again Sunday under first-year Bills coach Joe Brady, five days after the trade.
“He’s very smart, football smart, so that will help speed up the curve, but he’s going to have a lot of catching up to do,” Beane said. “Joe (Brady) will probably get that question; will he play this week? Will he not? That would be one of those things we’ll just have to see how it goes, how quickly we get him in here and get him up to speed.”
How The Buffalo Bills And Tennessee Titans Finished The Deal On Deadline Day
Talks between the clubs began about a week before the deadline. That was a few days after Tennessee traded three-time All-Pro defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons to the Chicago Bears for two first-round picks.
“They were on their bye and then we talked a couple times and they weren’t ready to do anything,” Beane said.
Beane and Titans general manager Mike Borgonzi crossed paths at Saturday’s Miami-Notre Dame game in South Bend, Ind.
“We didn’t really talk much about it,” Beane said. “There were a lot of people around, pleasantries, but we texted again yesterday and just said, ‘We’ll stay in touch.’”
Tuesday’s deadline was 3 p.m. CT.
“If you asked me at noon, I didn’t feel great that we were going to be able to do anything,” Beane said. “We had conversations going. This one picked up sometime after 1 p.m. and got it to the finish line. So Mike Borgonzi and Dave Ziegler over there, awesome to work with.”
Dawkins has played left tackle for Buffalo since 2017.
“We had to restructure Dion (Dawkins) today to make that happen, so appreciate Dion,” Beane said. “He was out at a community event…appreciate Dion and his reps helping us out and getting us to the finish line.”
Borgonzi met with reporters Wednesday at Vanderbilt Health Football Center in Nashville.
“We had some calls on him,” Borgonzi said. “Brandon Beane from Buffalo would call me for the last week on it and I said no at the time. Ran into him at the Notre Dame-Miami game the other night, said he’d stay in touch and it came together pretty fast.”
Borgonzi’s session ran about 20 minutes.
“It’s hard every year when you just get seven picks to really build it and with these two trades, it gave us the opportunity to acquire nine top 100 picks here in the next two years,” Borgonzi explained. “Now, we have a lot of work to do though, we obviously have to make the right decisions with these picks and it’s hard moving on from two really good players that have been here for a long time.”
“I want to thank Amani (Hooker) though, I’ve been around him now for a year and a half, obviously his play but his professionalism, the way he came to work every day, in the community,” Borgonzi continued. “He represented a lot of great things for this organization, so certainly it was tough to move on from Amani, but I wish him the best in Buffalo and it’s a good opportunity for him.”
Tennessee (1-7) hosts the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday at noon CT. Buffalo visits the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, with kickoff at noon CT on CBS.
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