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The Buffalo Bills barely scraped by the New York Giants in Week 6, winning 14-9 with a defensive stand on the last play of the game. This contest, as well as the team’s two losses, have illustrated that Buffalo has some weaknesses it needs to address. Between injuries and a lack of talent or depth at certain positions, the team’s roster has made the squad look ordinary at times this season. To fix this and cement their status as true Super Bowl contenders, here are three early Bills trade candidates that general manager Brandon Beane must consider ahead of the 2023 NFL trade deadline on October 31.
Beane is an interesting executive whose exact style is hard to pin down. Most of the time he seems conservative — almost overly so — when it comes to trades, free agents, and the draft. However, he does take big swings at times, for better or worse.
Beane made the massive deal for Stefon Diggs, which gifted the Vikings Justin Jefferson, but worked out exceedingly well for both teams. He also signed Von Miller, an impact player who is a two-time Super Bowl champion and eight-time Pro Bowler. Unfortunately, Beane gave Miller a six-year, $120 million deal at 33, and the pass rusher promptly got hurt and missed the second half of last season.
In the draft, Beane generally doesn’t take big risks, trading way up for a highly-touted prospect, but he also does trade up a few spots seemingly each season, which also isn’t ideal.
Now the Bills are coming up on the NFL trade deadline, and Beane needs to make a move. Again, he hasn’t made any big moves during past trading deadlines, but he’s also not afraid to make a deal on the day, as he did last season, sending Zack Moss to the Indianapolis Colts for Nyheim Hines.
What will Brandon Beane do in 2023? Here are three suggestions.
CB Jaylon Johnson
The Bills' secondary is a problem heading into the NFL trade deadline. Top cornerback Tre’Davious White is out for the year (again) after suffering a torn Achilles tendon, and safeties Jordan Poyer (32) and Micah Hyde (32) aren’t the elite playmakers they used to be.
Most troubling of all, 2022 first-round pick Kaiir Elam (who, yes, Brandon Beane traded up for) is a bust.
Elam is not fast enough or skilled enough to be an NFL corner. He didn’t even dress in the first four games of the 2023 campaign as a healthy scratch, and now he must play with White’s injury, but he’s not playing well. Elam gave up some easy catches to Giants receivers in the Bills' Week 6 win and had a big pass-interference penalty at the end of the first half.
Buffalo needs reinforcements at the back end of their defense, and it just so happened a talented CB, the Chicago Bears’ Jaylon Johnson, may be available.
Johnson is a CB1 or CB2 on a contending team, and with the Bears' depth at the position, he may be expendable but with plenty of value to bring back. Adding him to the Bills’ defensive backfield would go a long way to solidifying that group.
WR Hunter Renfrow
The Buffalo wide receiver room is also uninspiring through six games of the 2023 NFL season.
Stefon Diggs is a star, Gabe Davis is sometimes good (and sometimes decidedly not), and the rest of the WRs catching passes from Josh Allen are below average. What Allen is missing this season that he’s had in the past is a reliable underneath receiver like he had with Cole Beasley.
Las Vegas Raiders slot WR Hunter Renfrow is a player in the exact mold of Beasley, and may even be better under the right circumstances. For some reason, he’s fallen out of favor in Sin City with Jimmy Garoppolo at QB, but he could rediscover his Pro Bowl form with Allen.
Renfrow operating underneath would give Allen a safety blanket that he doesn’t have right now, and it would open up a ton of space at the other levels for Diggs and Davis to operate in. Plus, Renfrown only has nine targets all season, so the Bills may be able to make a trade with the Raiders to get him without breaking the draft capital bank.
RB Saquon Barkley
This last Bills NFL trade deadline deal is pie in the sky, but it also makes a ton of sense.
James Cook and Latavius Murray are fine backs, but they don’t move the needle at all. Damien Harris wasn’t getting a ton of carries either, and after his scary neck injury in the Bills Week 6 tilt with the Giants, he may be out for a while anyway.
Speaking of the Giants, the team battled with star running back Saquon Barkley all offseason over money, and even though they figured out a one-year deal to get him back, neither side can be all that happy right now. Plus, the G Men dropped to 1-5 with their loss in Buffalo on Monday night, and it’s time to start thinking about cutting money and getting draft picks in return.
Barkley is built to be on a contending team like the Bills, and a backfield of Josh Allen And Barkley would be incredibly difficult to game-plan against.
Also, Giants head coach Brian Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen used to work under Sean McDermott and Brandon Beane, so the front-office relationship is already in place to make this deal happen. It’s a long shot, but it’s a risk worth taking for a Super Bowl-starved franchise like the Bills.
