Buffalo Bills: A potential big move to make before the season begins

The Buffalo Bills may decide to move on from one more veteran this offseason if the goal is to continue looking toward improving for the future.

LeSean McCoy‘s name is one that comes up often when discussing potential Buffalo Bills trades.

McCoy had a disastrous 2018 season and his contract is up after this season. He should still have trade value, with last year being chalked up as a fluke, and I imagine Brandon Beane could also be considering cutting McCoy as well. The dead cap on such a move is just over $2.6 million.

Bill Barnwell of ESPN wrote a piece on offseason agendas for every AFC team earlier this month. His move for the Bills to make was moving on from McCoy.

From the article:

"McCoy’s numbers should theoretically get better behind a much-improved offensive line, but what’s the endgame here? Shady isn’t Buffalo’s back of the future behind Josh Allen. He offers more as a receiver than Gore and more as a runner than Yeldon, but he’s on the wrong side of 30 and has more than 2,300 carries on his tires."

If the Bills have no intention of keeping McCoy beyond 2019 then it makes perfect sense to offer him up in trades. Releasing him may be a more drastic move, but may be the only option if the trade market doesn’t develop favorably for the Bills.

McCoy can still serve as a leader on offense if he does stay. The problem is that another slow start could make his presence a burden. Frank Gore is already here as the veteran of the group and if McCoy is not his old self, he is essentially serving a lame duck term in the backfield.

I am not pushing for the Bills to move on from McCoy, but it would fall in line with the way Brandon Beane has done things up to this point. He knows that if he does want to trade McCoy it has to happen soon while his value is still high.

It would be a shame if he ended up being traded for a late-round pick.