The Buffalo Bills continue to make calculated moves this offseason. The end game is to take a quarterback early. Here are trades that will get it done.
As the Buffalo Bills continue to alter their roster, using free agency and trades, there is one central focus in mind. The Bills are positioning themselves to grab a top quarterback.
They understand what needs to be done to secure a top five pick. To move up, a team usually trades away a bulk of their draft picks. The common term is “mortgaging their future.”
When a team does that, they must look to free agency to add pieces to replace those draft picks. That is exactly what the Bills have done so far this offseason.
Signing Star Lotulelei, Kyle Williams and Trent Murphy fills big needs along the defensive line. They signed Chris Ivory to help provide more power to the run game.
They also signed AJ McCarron. McCarron will allow the young quarterback to grow from the sideline for an appropriate amount of time. Whoever is drafted will learn from day one how to prepare like a professional without the pressure of performing Week 1.
There are four quarterbacks currently being mentioned in the top five conversation (Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen, Baker Mayfield and Josh Allen).
(I have previously written scouting reports (pre-combine) on each of the quarterbacks which can be found here.)
Each quarterback offers a different set of tools to the team that selects them early in round one. Whoever gets drafted by the Bills will get a chance to compete with AJ McCarron and Nathan Peterman for the starting position.
But first, the Bills need to make the jump into the top of round one. Let’s look at which trade packages could be offered and what trade partner would be the best value.
(All trades were calculated based on the NFL draft value chart.)