Trading for a player mid-season...

[billsfan89]

3 minutes ago, BillsShredder83 said:

I know youre more plugged in than 99% here.  Any idea if the bolded is widely thought around NFL FO's as of late?  Obv entire offices arent going to be aligned on everything, but any sense if this logic is picking up steam?  From the outside it appears that way.  Certainly not expecting an NHL type deadline, but hoping it keeps trending upwards this year.  Seems like weve seen a decent amount of moves this early into season already

 

I am not a cap savant or know too much about why there's more in season trades but I know there was a new CBA in 2020 so maybe new cap rules made trades easier? I know the Bills making those big trades in 2017 slowly opened up the doors on teams making more trades in general outside of the free agency and draft windows. 

[L Ron Burgundy]

On 10/9/2025 at 2:36 PM, CDogg20 said:

Rasul was a great pickup at the time

 

Amari is a toss up.

 

Benjamin on the other hand…

Benjamin was worth it jut from a humor aspect. 

[L Ron Burgundy]

I think the one big potential benefit to mid season trades is finding a team trying to trade a good player they know they aren't keeping long term.  Those scenarios can result in picking up a good player for anywhere between a 4- 7 rd pick.  I'd try every year to snag talent this way.

Edited Friday at 08:57 PM by L Ron Burgundy

[MikePJ76]

23 minutes ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:

Trading a 3rd round lottery ticket for a proven NFL player is not necessarily a bad decision. I think you are overvaluing draft picks, while at the same time I am admittedly not caring as much about the future. Its a balance of course. Drafting Cook when they already had a RB looks like a great decision. That said I would still take a half season and a shot at the SuperBowl with Amari Cooper over the chance you draft another Boogie Basham. 

Maybe this is true but I mean when the game starts Monday we are going to be watching the nfc rookie of the month in Xavier Watts start at safety for Atlanta.

 

he was taken at 96, Atlanta traded up to get him.  Had Buffalo not made the terrible trade for cooper they simply could have selected him at 94.  Sure would be nice to have him out there playing with bishop or rapp.  
 

now they could have taken him over Jackson too but they didn’t.  That seems like a mistake right now also.  
 

trading draft picks has consequences.

[boyst]

25 minutes ago, billsfan89 said:

 

Who would you have rather drafted than Kincaid? Look at that draft and look at the next 20 picks after Kincaid the best "swap" is either a corner in Joey Porter Jr or another TE in Sam Laporta. I think if you look at the draft in 2023 the Bills simply were drafting too low to get one of the blue chip WR's like Zay Flowers, Addison, JSN, or Q.Johnson (and QJ is only now in year 3 starting to breakout a bit). The Bills were drafting 27th that year. Once Addison got off the board at pick 23 all those WR's were gone. There were from picks 20-23 in that draft a WR taken in 4 straight picks. Hard to say trade up when that's not always easy to do unless you massively overpay to get to pick 18/19 range. 

 

I think Kincaid on a smaller trade up was the right move given how that draft fell. Sometimes getting the right pick is about luck. 

We can't go back and say who would we rather have in an honest discussion.  Hindsight is 20/20.

We traded up. I'd have gone up further. I liked Zay Flowers. I'd have tried 15-20 to move up. Ditch our 2nd even.

[DeepPass]

On 10/9/2025 at 2:32 PM, Rigotz said:

Everybody wants the roster to improve immediately in areas of need. I get it.

However, impatience has killed Brandon Beane and this team in the past.

 

Ask yourself this question... when was the last time an in-season trade worked out for the Bills?

 

I can think of plenty that didn't:

Kelvin Benjamin for a 3rd round pick.

Amari Cooper for a 3rd and 6th round pick.

Rasul Douglas for a 3rd and 5th round pick. 

 

So, for all of those who will inevitably say "Brandon Beane caught sleeping again" ... name one time we traded for a guy in-season and the trade worked out for us?

 

Fact is, teams are willing to trade away these players mid-season for a reason. The truly valuable trades typically happen in the off-season, not during.

I think Douglas provided instant value!

[Kirby Jackson]

41 minutes ago, BillsShredder83 said:

I know youre more plugged in than 99% here.  Any idea if the bolded is widely thought around NFL FO's as of late?  Obv entire offices arent going to be aligned on everything, but any sense if this logic is picking up steam?  From the outside it appears that way.  Certainly not expecting an NHL type deadline, but hoping it keeps trending upwards this year.  Seems like weve seen a decent amount of moves this early into season already

I don’t know for sure but think that the Rams title sort of started it. They aggressively added guys and won. Last year was the most active deadline in forever. It’s like anything, someone does something that works and others replicate it. The pendulum has swung towards active trade deadlines.

 

I think that there is probably one other reason and that’s tanking. Stars have basically stopped moving around in FA over the last 5-10 years. Now, you have to draft a star or trade for them. Teams that aren’t going to win it, are better off being 4-13 than 7-10. If you can get a Drake Maye or Jayden Daniels, it can change your franchise. You’ll have them forever. It’s not just QBs though. If you get Myles Garrett or Aiden Hutchinson it has a similar impact. That’s why the Parsons trade was so interesting.

[BillsShredder83]

3 hours ago, Kirby Jackson said:

Exactly. I’m not saying that AJ Brown is available or gettable. Hypothetically though, if the Bills added him tomorrow, what would their record be the rest of the year? Would they lose a game? 

The idea that our offense is going to play like it is right now, and magically still score against the Spags/Fangios of the league in the playoffs feels so flawed to me.  Im a Beane enjoyer, I think his drafts have been very good.... that half measures to address WR position since 2020 (jon brown/ cole, diggs) has been frustrating all along.

 

Ive never waivered on Beane, but am ready for a change from McD.  Those things feel in conflict, hard to picture Beane being able to stay if Coach got fired, so ive been hesitant.  If we cant atleast make the SB, Im wanting us to make a change... would prefer Beane stay, but if theyre a package deal, then ill take my chances with a new HC and GM.

 

I hope they both recognize it too. Are they going to be glad they saved draft picks for the new GM if they lose their job?  I dont trust the defense to get it done.

 

 I think we're 2-3 first downs away from icing the Chiefs in our last 2 elimination games.  

 

Asking the offense to grab a few extra first down to ice the game feels a helluva lot more obtainable than asking the defense to get 2 more stops. 

[Ethan in Cleveland]

48 minutes ago, MikePJ76 said:

Maybe this is true but I mean when the game starts Monday we are going to be watching the nfc rookie of the month in Xavier Watts start at safety for Atlanta.

 

he was taken at 96, Atlanta traded up to get him.  Had Buffalo not made the terrible trade for cooper they simply could have selected him at 94.  Sure would be nice to have him out there playing with bishop or rapp.  
 

now they could have taken him over Jackson too but they didn’t.  That seems like a mistake right now also.  
 

trading draft picks has consequences.

LOL...and our 3rd round pick didn't dress for four games and was called out by the coach for not doing his job/not knowing the play last game.  Like I said it's a lottery and I'd favor trading away future lottery tickets for a proven talent. 

 

 

[boyst]

16 minutes ago, BillsShredder83 said:

The idea that our offense is going to play like it is right now, and magically still score against the Spags/Fangios of the league in the playoffs feels so flawed to me.  Im a Beane enjoyer, I think his drafts have been very good.... that half measures to address WR position since 2020 (jon brown/ cole, diggs) has been frustrating all along.

 

Ive never waivered on Beane, but am ready for a change from McD.  Those things feel in conflict, hard to picture Beane being able to stay if Coach got fired, so ive been hesitant.  If we cant atleast make the SB, Im wanting us to make a change... would prefer Beane stay, but if theyre a package deal, then ill take my chances with a new HC and GM.

 

I hope they both recognize it too. Are they going to be glad they saved draft picks for the new GM if they lose their job?  I dont trust the defense to get it done.

 

 I think we're 2-3 first downs away from icing the Chiefs in our last 2 elimination games.  

 

Asking the offense to grab a few extra first down to ice the game feels a helluva lot more obtainable than asking the defense to get 2 more stops. 

In today's League it is 100% true. Defense wins championships, strategy and football intelligence wins games, offenses  must outscore the other team. 

Which one comes first? I'll always believe defense wins championships but unless you have the appropriate players and staff it's very hard to do. 

But we have one of the best players in the league capitalize

[Gunsgoodtime]

1 hour ago, L Ron Burgundy said:

Benjamin was worth it jut from a humor aspect. 

I was really excited to get him, we desperately needed a WR, imagine that

[mjt328]

2 hours ago, Gunsgoodtime said:

That's because Beane is a horrible drafter and at FA acquisitions.  His strong desire to not draft certain positions and talent evaluation hurts a lot.   You could be blindfolded throwing darts and hit more than Beane

 

I don't think he's "horrible" at drafting.

 

It's just that almost everyone he drafts would be graded as a B (solid starter) or C (solid backup/rotational piece).  

 

In my opinion, he's too safe and needs to take more chances.  Both at being more willing to trade-up for a difference maker, and being willing to swing at riskier/higher ceiling players.

[MikePJ76]

5 minutes ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:

LOL...and our 3rd round pick didn't dress for four games and was called out by the coach for not doing his job/not knowing the play last game.  Like I said it's a lottery and I'd favor trading away future lottery tickets for a proven talent. 

 

 

Ok.  But that doesn’t change the fact that watts could be starting at safety this week for the bills.

 

also it wasn’t Jackson that McDermott was talking about. 

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

On 10/9/2025 at 2:32 PM, Rigotz said:

Everybody wants the roster to improve immediately in areas of need. I get it.

However, impatience has killed Brandon Beane and this team in the past.

 

Ask yourself this question... when was the last time an in-season trade worked out for the Bills?

 

I can think of plenty that didn't:

Kelvin Benjamin for a 3rd round pick.

Amari Cooper for a 3rd and 6th round pick.

Rasul Douglas for a 3rd and 5th round pick. 

 

So, for all of those who will inevitably say "Brandon Beane caught sleeping again" ... name one time we traded for a guy in-season and the trade worked out for us?

 

Fact is, teams are willing to trade away these players mid-season for a reason. The truly valuable trades typically happen in the off-season, not during.

and don’t forget Nyheim Hines! 
 

I agree with you. We also don’t seem to do the best job at integrating new players. It seemed like cooper was never fully integrated into the offense. 

[NewEra]

2 hours ago, MikePJ76 said:

Ok.  But that doesn’t change the fact that watts could be starting at safety this week for the bills.

 

also it wasn’t Jackson that McDermott was talking about. 

These posts are so incredibly juvenile.  Wahhhh the GM made a move that I didn’t like, so now I’m going to become 8.  Grats- you did

[Governor]

4 hours ago, boyst said:

In today's League it is 100% true. Defense wins championships, strategy and football intelligence wins games, offenses  must outscore the other team. 

Which one comes first? I'll always believe defense wins championships but unless you have the appropriate players and staff it's very hard to do. 

But we have one of the best players in the league capitalize

You still need both. Your defense needs to be top 5 or at least trending upwards towards top 5 late to win it. I believe I looked it up once but most of the winners over the last decade were actually top 3 in defense for the exception of the Chiefs, and they always dialed it up late the years they actually won. I believe the Rams, Bucs, and Eagles were all #1.

Edited yesterday at 02:05 AM by Governor

[Pecker]

Getting back to trades, I can’t see us adding anyone with a big contract, for cap reasons.  
 

however I would like to bring Mack Hollins back.  He was a big physical WR who had some success getting down the field.  He caught a number of TDs and was a good blocker.  He has experience in our O and could actually get integrated quick.  
 

another TYPE of target could be a rookie WR we liked, but didn’t get, in the draft or UDFA.  Isaiah bond comes to my mind (I understand it’s unlikely with the character issues) but he didn’t cost the Browns anything, isn’t playing much, and would cost maybe a 7th round pick?  He was pretty darn good in college. 

[MasterStrategist]

We need speed on defense (secondary) and a WR able to win 1-1, more than Palmer/Keon.

 

Max brings speed, when hes ready.  He will make rookie errors, but will undoubtedly be more sticky in coverage than Tre right now.

 

Give me a safety so we can get Rapp to where he belongs, as #3 safety.

 

I begged for a legit safety in FA, and a solid #2 CB- need to give Max a chance now.  But he can still find a starter at S via trade.

 

I think DJ Moore will be available for trade. Maybe Shaheed.  Going to be slim pickings IMO, but possible.

 

Beane made his bed at WR this season, is how I look at it.  Paid Palmer, Samuel deal is so costly this yr.  

 

But get Rapp off the field ASAP pls.

[BuffaloBillyG]

11 hours ago, MasterStrategist said:

We need speed on defense (secondary) and a WR able to win 1-1, more than Palmer/Keon.

 

Max brings speed, when hes ready.  He will make rookie errors, but will undoubtedly be more sticky in coverage than Tre right now.

 

Give me a safety so we can get Rapp to where he belongs, as #3 safety.

 

I begged for a legit safety in FA, and a solid #2 CB- need to give Max a chance now.  But he can still find a starter at S via trade.

 

I think DJ Moore will be available for trade. Maybe Shaheed.  Going to be slim pickings IMO, but possible.

 

Beane made his bed at WR this season, is how I look at it.  Paid Palmer, Samuel deal is so costly this yr.  

 

But get Rapp off the field ASAP pls.

I am so glad other people are coming around on Rapp. He's a huge liability out there and has been for a long while. With people not hyper focused on Hamlin's play, Rapp is being exposed. We definitely need an upgrade there. Unfortunately, I don't see them moving on in season for reasons that have been discussed a lot on this board. (Would lead to communication issues in the secondary, McDermott runs a complex defense to pick up, ECT..)

 

WR, I agree we need something there. But I fear giving Joe Brady a down field threat would like giving a baby a PS5. Great and flashy but may collect dust because the owner doesn't know how to use it. I like Shaheed and have for a while. Another name for them to consider may be Mecole Hardman. He's a FA, so wouldn't cost picks. And while he certainly isn't magnificent, he does have some big game experience and can get a jersey on game days as a returner and situational deep threat. Should also be a very low dollar contract.

[finn]

11 hours ago, MasterStrategist said:

Beane made his bed at WR this season, is how I look at it.  Paid Palmer, Samuel deal is so costly this yr.  

 

But get Rapp off the field ASAP pls.

I so wanted Beane to draft Xavier Watts in the second round. I get it that d-line is premium, but he went too far, and I don't say that in hindsight. Three expensive free agents and three of the first four draft picks necessarily means you're neglecting other positions. To me, the most glaring area of neglect was safety, with receiver right behind. Rapp is no more than adequate, better as a backup and mentor (the Poyer role now) to Bishop and someone like Watts. 

 

I realize how easy and unfair it is to criticize Beane from an armchair, but I do think he fixated on penetrating linemen to a fault. We're seeing that fault playing out in real time right now. It's a good team with three possibly fatal weaknesses (run defense, the secondary, and wide receiver) that he didn't address well enough in the offseason, largely because he doubled and tripled down on pass rushers. To be fair, maybe Hoecht and Obiwan will be difference makers. We'll see. But I doubt Rapp will suddenly become anything more this year's Hamlin.