This past week, Jeremy Fowler from ESPN had reported that the Buffalo Bills were going to be releasing cornerback Taron Johnson after eight seasons in Buffalo. Johnson was at one point the best nickel corner in the league and played a crucial role in Sean McDermott’s defense. With McDermott now out, it makes sense that the Bills would let Johnson go and move on.
However, that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore as Ian Rapoport has reported that the Bills are trading Johnson to the Las Vegas Raiders. Rapoport said that the trade is also a 6th/7th round swap between Las Vegas and Buffalo. The Bills get back into the 6th round of next month's draft.
Trade: The #Raiders are trading for #Bills veteran CB Taron Johnson, sources say. It's a 6/7 pick swap.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 9, 2026
Johnson was announced as a release, but not officially on the wire yet. Las Vegas pounces. pic.twitter.com/B0oY28Uebp
Bills are trading Taron Johnson to Raiders rather than releasing him
With tomorrow’s NFL legal tampering period opening up at 12PM EST, Johnson would have definitely had a market and who knows if he would have willingly signed with the Raiders who are going into a rebuild after the Maxx Crosby trade. However, the Raiders clearly didn’t want to take that chance and now they will acquire his services via trade.
With this trade, the Bills got themselves a 6th-round pick, something that they didn’t have but they had two 7th-round picks. Buffalo is still set to have seven draft picks, but having the 6th-round pick helps them out a bit now as Brandon Beane has drafted some Day 3 gems in his tenure.
Johnson is just two seasons removed from being a Second-Team All-Pro player where he shined in McDermott’s defense. As he now prepares to go out to Las Vegas, he will bring 572 combined total tackles, 6 interceptions, and 48 pass deflections with him. He is still playing some great football, but he’s had some injuries pop up to where he has missed atleast four games the last two seasons each.
The Bills were set to release Johnson anyways so them getting a little bit of a higher Day 3 draft pick is a win for them. On the other hand, the Raiders get themselves a quality starting corner as they prepare for a rebuild. Them adding Johnson gives them a great veteran presence on the backend of the defense.
This is now the second reported trade involving the Bills, with the first being them acquiring wide receiver D.J. Moore from the Chicago Bears. Now they will send Johnson to Las Vegas. In addition, the Bills and Raiders will face each other in 2026 so Johnson will now be set to play against his former team.