Stephen A. Smith delivers Jaylen Waddle-trade take Bills fans won't like

The Buffalo Bills got the chance to watch the Miami Dolphins continue their tear down of the roster as they traded wide receiver Jaylen Waddle to the Denver Broncos in exchange for a 1st and 3rd round pick this year. Both teams swapped a 4th rounder as well. 

Miami is committing to the rebuild that their new regime is placing them in and Bills fans are happy to see this happening. For years now, the Dolphins have tried whatever it takes to take down the Bills. Clearly, they failed to do so.

Last season at the trade deadline, the Bills were reportedly the highest bidder to acquire Waddle which had included a 2027 first round pick, but the Dolphins weren’t willing to trade him to an in-division rival. It makes sense because not only are in-division trades rare, but involving star players is nearly unheard of.

While the Bills weren’t able to acquire Waddle, they did manage to land D.J. Moore from the Chicago Bears which gives Josh Allen a go-to guy on the outside. Even though the Bills had absolutely nothing to do with this trade, Stephen A. Smith from First Take still managed to bring the Bills in the conversation as the biggest loser from this deal.

Stephen A. Smith shades Bills in Jaylen Waddle-to-Denver deal

Smith talked about how he thought about how the Bills could have had Waddle last season. Then he mentioned how the Bills lost to the Broncos in the playoffs 33-30 in overtime, and Smith said he believes that the Bills would have won that game if they had Waddle. Ultimately, Smith talked about the Bills shouldn’t have let a team get stronger who already beat them in the playoffs.

Don’t get me wrong, Waddle is a special player and if the Bills had him last season, maybe their season would have had a different outcome than what it was in Denver. At the same time, no one can blame the Dolphins for not trading one of their young stars in the same division to the team that had been ruling the division in recent memory.

Not to mention, the Broncos gave up a little bit of a haul to acquire Waddle. Trading a 1st and a 3rd is not a light package, especially for a player that has never been a true No. 1. When the Bills traded for Moore, they only gave up a low 2nd rounder and still managed to receive a 5th-round pick as well.

In addition, Moore already has continuity with Joe Brady and now he gets the best quarterback he has ever had in his career. So, maybe the trade for Waddle is more "electrifying" in NFL terms, but the trade package was heavier and now Denver will be hoping that Waddle can turn into a WR1 when we already know that Moore has been one throughout his career. He just didn't fit well into Ben Johnson's offense in Chicago.