The Buffalo Bills 2022 season ended in disappointment when the team lost in the Divisional Round to the Cincinnati Bengals. That loss exposed some major weaknesses on the Bills roster. Now, in the 2023 NFL offseason, Buffalo has to address these areas — specifically the wide receiver group and the pass rush — with some trades. The two best Bills trade targets on the market right now are Arizona Cardinals WR DeAndre Hopkins and New Orleans Saints pass rusher Cameron Jordan.
WR DeAndre Hopkins
Heading into the 2022 season, the Bills wide receiving corps looked solid with All-Pro Stefon Diggs, promising young wideout Gabriel Davis, and a host of versatile pass-catchers like Jamison Crowder, Isaiah McKenzie, and rookie Khalil Shakir.
Fast forward to the end of the campaign, and Diggs was a problem on the sideline, Davis regressed and had some significant drops, Crowder was hurt most of the year, and McKenzie didn’t develop into an every-down player.
Shakir had a nice freshman season, but he looks like a WR3 at best.
That means that in the 2023 NFL offseason, the Bills need to beef up this group with some high-level talent.
The team could look to draft another pass-catcher, but the 2023 class isn’t as strong as the past few years. Plus, the franchise needs help now and can’t wait for another rookie to develop. This means a Bills trade is the most logical move.
Rumors are that DeAndre Hopkins and the Cardinals are ready to part ways after the receiver’s PED suspension and a drama-filled year with quarterback Kyler Murray. Hopkins will turn 31 during the NFL offseason, but he still has a good two to three seasons left in him.
Hopkins is a prototypical No. 1 wideout at 6-foot-1, 212 pounds with elite ball skills. He’s gone over 1,000 yards in six of his 10 NFL seasons and caught more than 75 balls seven times in his five-time Pro Bowl, three-time All-Pro career.
The veteran wideout would be a perfect fit opposite Diggs catching passes from Josh Allen. He would finally give the QB two elite pass-catchers for the first time in his career, which is why he is a perfect Bills trade candidate this NFL offseason.
DE Cameron Jordan
The other major issue a Bills trade should address this offseason is the pass rush. In the Divisional Round, the Buffalo edge rushers couldn’t get any significant pressure on Joe Burrow despite rushing against a banged-up Bengals line.
Von Miller will hopefully come back fully healthy next season after an ACL tear cost him the final seven games of last season. However, the highly-drafted Gregory Rousseau, Boogie Basham, and A.J. Epenesa showed in 2022 they are not yet premier rushers.
To complement Miller, the Bills need to add a proven NFL sack artist in the 2023 NFL offseason, and a player who could be available and fit this bill is Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan.
Jordan will turn 34 this NFL offseason, but like DeAndre Hopkins, he can still get it done at a high level, especially in a rotation like the Bills would feature if they trade for the DE.
The 12-year veteran has 115.5 career sacks, including six seasons with double-digit QB takedowns. In 2022, he recorded 8.5 sacks, which would have led the Buffalo defense in that category.
Cameron Jordan could be available this offseason because the Saints are currently in a nightmare salary cap situation, with a$-44,355,434 cap balance in the 2023 NFL offseason. The seven-time Pro Bowler has a $25.6 million cap hit next season, and trading him will save over $2 million. And if the Saints trade him after June 1, they can take the roughly $23 million in dead cap and spread it out over two seasons.
This Bills trade works for Buffalo because, although they are about $18.7 million over the cap right now, restructuring a few of their key veterans (Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs, Von Miller, Tre'Davious White, Dion Dawkins, Matt Milano, and Mitch Morse to start) easily gives the Bills room to take on a cap hit like Jordan’s.
There are plenty of promising young pass-rushers on the Bills right now, but if the organization is going to go all in on a Super Bowl in the next two years, they have to get players who can get it done right now.
Cameron Jordan is one of these players, and if a Bills trade for him means giving up draft capital and pushing salary cap issues into the future, it is still a deal worth making. And that’s ultimately why Jordan and DeAndre Hopkins should be the top two Bills trade targets in the 2023 NFL offseason.
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