According to reports, the Buffalo Bills have traded Russell Bodine to the New England Patriots.
One day after the Buffalo Bills traded offensive linemen Wyatt Teller to the Cleveland Browns, the Bills trade another linemen, Russel Bodine, to the New England Patriot for a sixth round pick, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
The #Patriots are trading a 6th round pick to the #Bills for C Russell Bodine, source said. Buffalo’s center Mitch Morse getting healthy, combined with David Andrews likely heading to IR with a blood clot necessitated this.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 30, 2019
The Bills signed Russell Bodine last offseason to compete for the starting job after the sudden retirement of Eric Woods. Bodine was a fourth round pick by the Cincinnati Bengals and played his first four years in the league with the Bengals. He started every game for them over that four year stretch.
However, Bodine struggled during the time with the Bills and started only 10 games last year for the Bills. Entering this year, he was at best going to be a backup after they signed Mitch Morse this offseason.
As Rapoport notes, Morse is out of the concussion protocol, which was confirmed by Brandon Beane during last night’s preseason game against the Minnesota Vikings, however as the preseason went on Bodine was firmly on the roster bubble.
After Morse’s concussion it wasn’t Bodine who started at center in the first preseason game but rather Jon Feliciano. The fact that Bodine didn’t get the start, even after playing with the first string during practice, was very telling about his place on this team.
The trade of Bodine, along with the trade of Teller yesterday, shows that this front office is going to be working the phone lines all the way up to the 4 PM deadline tomorrow. The fact they are able to collect draft capital for players that likely were going to be cut over the next day or so, is a smart move. The additional draft picks, while late picks, can be packaged together to move around the NFL Draft if they find a player they want.