Buffalo Bills Aggressive Trade Brings In LeSean McCoy

The Buffalo Bills made a splash yesterday, making an aggressive move to trade for an elite running back that is LeSean McCoy.

LeSean McCoy is coming over from the Philadelphia Eagles in replace of Kiko Alonso. I like the aggressive move by the Buffalo Bills in that it doesn’t hurt the existing defense. Kiko did not play last year and the defense finished 4th overall. There was a lot of hype about Kiko Alonso returning to the defense and it being better, but in all reality the defense was going to be better either way, Rex Ryan is a mastermind when it comes to defensive schemes.

As far as price, player for player trade is great. The Buffalo Bills are not giving up a lot in the deal and are getting an elite running back that only two years ago was the top running back in the league.

In 2013, LeSean McCoy had over 1600 yards rushing on 314 carries and 9 touchdowns. He has had upwards of 17 touchdowns on the ground, back in 2011. McCoy is 26 years old and is still in his prime. Last year, his numbers were a bit down only rushing 312 times for over 1300 yards on the ground and only recorded 5 touchdowns.

He did drop in yards per carry from 5.1 in 2013 to 4.2 in 2014. He did have pretty much the same attempts per game, 19.5 over the two years, but a drop in numbers can be explained. When tackle Lane Johnson was suspended for the first 4 games, McCoy only averaged 2.8 yards per carry. When Johnson returned to the line-up McCOy was back over 4 yards per carry sitting at 4.6 to be exact.

The Eagles also had a lot of shuffling that occurred on their offensive line last year, so that also could have played a role in the drop in averages.

The next move for the Buffalo Bills is to bring in another guard and/or a strong run blocking tight end. This move shows that the Buffalo Bills are set to commit to the run game and will be dealing with what ever average quarterback they are able to grab in free agency.

The move does have the cap space taking a hit for the Bills with LeSean McCoy set to make 10 million this year, but it should not effect the signing of Jerry Hughes, which should be a priority but is not contingent on this defense’s success. McCoy was set to restructure his contract with Philadelphia, but was not willing to take less money, so a contract extension and restructuring of the contract could be a possibility to free up soem money. Another option, if it comes to it, is to restructure that 18.8 million dollar salary that Super Mario Williams is set to take this year.

For the Buffalo Bills, this moves provides them with more options as far as which direction they will proceed within free agency, and the lesser value on the quarterback at this time, allows them to secure a better tight end or lineman to help out on the run game.

The Buffalo Bills are not done yet, look for another aggressive move to happen as per Joe Buscaglia’s tweet from yesterday.

The #Bills are being VERY aggressive. I would not at all be surprised if there is another move soon.

Next: LeSean McCoy to Buffalo Bills: Rapid Reaction

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