Orchard Park, N.Y. (WGR) - During his Wednesday meeting with the media after the team acquired safety Amani Hooker ahead of Tuesday's NFL Trade Deadline, Buffalo Bills head coach Joe Brady says he's excited to add the eight-year veteran and praised his football intelligence.
"Going against him in his career, obviously he has a knack of finding the football," Brady said of Hooker, who is currently tied with Green Bay Packers safety Xavier McKinney for the NFL lead with five interceptions.
The Bills acquired Hooker in a trade with the Tennessee Titans on Tuesday. They also received a 2027 fifth-round pick in the package, and sent the Titans back a 2027 second-round pick.
"Just talking with him in the limited time, I've been in communication with him the last couple of days, you can just see his football intelligence," Brady said. "He's a cerebral guy. Feels like he'll be able to pick up the system fast, and be able to kinda go with it and see that with the way that he plays."
Brady is also not ruling out the possibility of Hooker playing as soon as Sunday when the Bills face the New York Jets.
"He's a vet. He's played a lot of football. Sometimes it's just about learning the terminology, and it might have meant this in one place, but now it's this," he said. "I think these guys usually pick it up at a fast rate. We'll just take it day-by-day and see how much he can process, and how fast he can and what he can handle and communicate. And whatever he can handle we'll ask him to do that."
The Bills held a walk-through practice on Wednesday. Brady says they wouldn't really have any physical reps, that things would be mostly mental, so he doesn't have an indication yet on the status of any injured players headed into this weekend's game.
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