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Buffalo Bills News & Rumors

New York Notes: Darnold, Giants, Sanders

March 21st, 2021 at 10:25am CST by Rory Parks

Before the legal tampering period kicked off, Rich Cimini of ESPN.com said it was more likely than not that the Jets would trade Sam Darnold, assuming that BYU QB Zach Wilson — whom the Jets would select with the No. 2 overall pick to replace Darnold — “checks the important boxes during the pre-draft process.” Cimini said at the time that there was a market for Darnold, and he named Washington, the Bears, the Seahawks, the Texans, and the 49ers as potential landing spots.

But since then, WFT signed Ryan Fitzpatrick and Chicago acquired Andy Dalton. Obviously, neither of those QBs are long-term answers, but they do at least obviate an immediate need for a signal-caller. Meanwhile, the Seahawks are moving forward with Russell Wilson, Houston may be unable to trade incumbent QB Deshaun Watson in light of the sexual abuse allegations that have been levied against him, and it’s unclear how actively San Francisco is pursuing an upgrade over Jimmy Garoppolo. As such, the Jets might not be able to trade Darnold, and it will be interesting to see if that will impact the team’s decision with respect to Zach Wilson (or any other rookie passer).

Now for more out of the Empire State:

  • In less exciting Jets news, the team is still looking into free agent kickers and wants to find a starting-caliber corner, as Cimini writes. The CB need will probably be filled in the draft; Cimini does not expect the club to pursue Richard Sherman, despite the obvious Sherman-Robert Saleh connection.
  • It might go without saying, but when the Giants agreed to a three-year, $63MM pact with DL Leonard Williams a few days ago, Williams agreed to drop his grievance concerning his 2020 franchise tag, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. Williams was tagged as a defensive tackle but believed he should have received a defensive end tag, and if he had prevailed, his tag number for 2021 would have jumped to $21.4MM. Since he got a $21MM AAV on his extension, things worked out just fine for him in the end.
  • Per Dan Duggan of The Athletic, Williams — who is clearly not afraid to bet on himself — pushed for a shorter contract so that he can hit the open market again before he turns 30. Duggan says the Giants have explored restructures for 2020 signees James Bradberry and Blake Martinez, something the club may need to really push for now that it has agreed to a big-money deal for WR Kenny Golladay.
  • The Giants signed veteran TE Kyle Rudolph earlier this week, but his addition does not impact Evan Engram‘s status with the team, a source tells Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com. Engram will play out the 2021 season on the fifth-year option of his rookie deal and hopes for a strong platform performance after struggling a bit in 2020.
  • These days, instead of being forced to reach out to agents to convince their clients to play in western New York, agents are the ones calling the Bills, as Vic Carucci of the Buffalo News writes. Head coach Sean McDermott and GM Brandon Beane have created a winning club and a positive culture, and players around the league are taking notice and now see Buffalo as an attractive destination. While the Bills didn’t have a ton of cap space heading into this year’s free agent cycle — or many major holes to fill — they did bring in WR Emmanuel Sanders, whom they had targeted for several years. Sanders is a prime example of the changing feelings towards Buffalo, saying “[w]ho wouldn’t want to be part of it?” (via John Wawrow of the Associated Press).

Jets To Sign Tyler Kroft

March 19th, 2021 at 5:21pm CST by Zachary Links

The Jets have signed tight end Tyler Kroft to a one-year deal, per an announcement from his agent. Kroft, a former third-round pick of the Bengals, has spent the last two seasons with the Bills. 

The Rutgers product will be about an hour-and-a-half away from his old stomping grounds with a real opportunity for targets. Chris Herndon isn’t necessarily locked in as Mike LaFleur‘s top tight end, which opens the door for Kroft.

Kroft did his best work with the Bengals, particularly in 2017 when he totaled 42 catches, 404 receiving yards, and seven touchdowns. That year helped propel him towards a three-year, $18MM free agent deal with Buffalo. He hasn’t come close since, but he did manage 12 grabs for 119 yards and three touchdowns last year.

Bills To Sign Jacob Hollister

March 19th, 2021 at 2:05pm CST by Zachary Links

Jacob Hollister is saying goodbye to Seattle. On Friday, the former Seahawks tight end agreed to aa one-year deal with the Bills (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero). 

Hollister gets to reunite with his old Wyoming teammate Josh Allen, which could mean an uptick in targets. After two years of limited usage in New England, Hollister enjoyed a breakout 2019 season with the Seahawks, hauling in 41 receptions for 349 yards and three touchdowns. Then, he went from 59 targets to just 40 looks in 2020. He finished out with 25/209/3.

The writing was on the wall for Hollister — the Seahawks’ new one-year deal for Gerald Everett pushed him out of the equation. Everett, who will earn $7MM on his free agent contract, is coming off a career-year with 41 catches for 417 yards and one TD for the Rams.

Bills GM Discusses Potential Josh Allen Extension

March 18th, 2021 at 6:06pm CST by Ben Levine

Josh Allen is now eligible for an extension, but it doesn’t sound like the Bills are currently prioritizing a long-term pact for the franchise quarterback. During an appearance on The Cris Collinsworth Podcast, general manager Brandon Beane admitted that his team was focused on free agency and the draft.

“Yeah, [Allen] said he was going to give us a nice hometown discount, and hopefully we’ll get him done,” Beane joked (via Charean Williams of ProFootballTalk.com). “No, in all seriousness, we’ll talk to Josh and his people later in the spring, get through the draft where we can just focus on that. That’s obviously a big financial commitment that you have to make. That will probably be sometime May through the summer. I don’t know.”

In other words, the Bills are obviously going to explore an extension with their star quarterback, but there are more pressing matters at the moment. We heard similarly earlier this year, when NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reported that the Bills would likely approach Allen’s camp about an extension in the spring or summer.

Allen had a breakout campaign in 2020, transforming into an MVP candidate and guiding the Bills to 13 wins. He finished the year having completed 69.2-percent of his passes for 4,544 yards, 30 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions, and he added another 421 rushing yards and eight touchdowns. He also helped lead the Bills to the AFC Championship Game, the organization’s first appearance in the game since 1993.

With the 24-year-old passer under team control through 2022 — via the fifth-year option the Bills will exercise by May — the team will have some time to complete this process. Considering some of the recent quarterback deals that have been handed out, Allen will certainly be eyeing a lucrative pay day when he inevitably puts pen to paper.

Bills Re-Sign Taiwan Jones

March 18th, 2021 at 5:56pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

The Bills are locking up a key special teamer. Buffalo has re-signed running back Taiwan Jones to a one-year deal, the team announced on Twitter.

It’s fair to assume that the contract is for pretty close to the league minimum. Jones played only four total snaps on offense last year, but played around 40 percent of the total special teams snaps. Jones will turn 33 in July, and the veteran has done a nice job of sticking around in the league for what will be his 11th pro season in the fall.

He entered the league as a fourth-round pick all the way back in 2011, and managed to carve out a career despite never carrying the ball more than 16 times in a season. He also was the Raiders’ kick returner for a couple of years, and had 829 return yards in 2015, which was the most in the AFC.

After his first six seasons with the Raiders he was with the Bills from 2017-18, then spent a year with the Texans, before returning to Buffalo last season.

Bills Had Interest In Rob Gronkowski

March 18th, 2021 at 2:59pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

The first free agency of Rob Gronkowski‘s legendary career was brief, as he was quickly re-signed by the Buccaneers on Monday. But that doesn’t mean Tampa Bay was the only option on his list, as Bills GM Brandon Beane confirmed Thursday his team had interest in the tight end.

“We spoke to his rep about him…we never made an official offer…I think there was some interest but at the end of the day, it would have been an upset for him to leave Tom Brady,” Beane said, via this tweet from Mike Giradi of NFL Network. It sounds like Buffalo expressed some interest early on but got told by his agent he was likely headed back to the Bucs and backed off.

It all makes plenty of sense because Gronk has long said the only reason he came out of retirement in the first place was to play with Brady again. Tampa also just won the Super Bowl and gave him an $8MM contract worth up to $10MM, so there’s not really any reason for him to switch things up.

Still, the thought of Gronkowski playing in Buffalo is cool. It would’ve been a homecoming for the future Hall of Famer, as he was born just 15 minutes outside of Buffalo and grew up in upstate New York. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. The former Patriot played in all 16 games last year, finishing with 623 yards and seven touchdowns.

Bills, Mitchell Trubisky Agree To Deal

March 18th, 2021 at 1:59pm CST by Sam Robinson

Mitchell Trubisky found a landing spot, and it will not give him a chance to start in 2021 (barring injury). The former Bears quarterback intends to sign with the Bills, Adam Schefter and Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com report (on Twitter). The Bills have announced the signing. It’s a one-year deal worth $2.5MM, per NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport (via Twitter).

The former No. 2 overall pick will be set to back up Josh Allen in Buffalo. This marks the latest in a slew of bridge- or backup-level quarterback signings this week, and it will end Trubisky’s scrutinized four-year tenure in Chicago. It is a one-year agreement, Mike Garafolo of NFL.com tweets.

A Cleveland-area native, Trubisky will return to the shores of Lake Erie in an effort to stabilize his career. While the Bears did advance to the playoffs in two of the maligned passer’s four seasons, Trubisky’s Chicago tenure veered off course quickly. The one-year North Carolina starter showed early in his run he was incapable of playing on the level of fellow 2017 first-round QBs Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson. The Bears used Trubisky as a starter for most of his four seasons with the team but have since signed Andy Dalton.

This will put Trubisky ahead of another quarterback who has seen his value drop, with Jake Fromm now having a more difficult path to becoming Allen’s top backup. Once rumored as a first-round pick, the ex-Georgia passer went in the 2020 fifth round. Fromm now projects as Buffalo’s third-stringer again. Previous Bills backup Matt Barkley is a free agent.

The Bears, who traded up for Trubisky four years ago, turned to him as their Week 1 starter again in 2020. But Matt Nagy benched him in Week 3. However, Nagy reinstalled Trubisky as his QB1 after Nick Foles then struggled and suffered an injury. Trubisky helped the Bears beat some sub-.500 opposition down the stretch, but that run was good enough to lift the team to the postseason for the second time in three years. Trubisky, his Nickelodeon MVP award notwithstanding, struggled in a one-sided loss to the Saints. He will attempt to regroup behind Allen in Buffalo.

RFA/ERFA Tender Decisions: 3/17/21

March 17th, 2021 at 9:03am CST by Zachary Links

Today’s the deadline for teams to extend tender offers to their restricted free agents and exclusive rights free agents. We’ll keep tabs on the latest here:

RFAs

Tendered:

Non-Tendered: 

ERFAs

Tendered: 

Non-Tendered:

  • .

Bills Trade TE Lee Smith To Falcons

March 16th, 2021 at 7:11pm CST by Rory Parks

The Bills are trading veteran tight end Lee Smith to the Falcons, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Buffalo will get a 2022 late-round selection in the swap.

Smith signed a three-year, $9MM pact with the Bills in May 2019, but that deal was heavily front-loaded. Today’s trade leaves no dead money on Buffalo’s books and will clear $2.25MM in cap space. Smith was due a $250K roster bonus on March 21, as Joe Buscaglia of The Athletic tweets.

Now 33, Smith has caught just 64 passes for 458 yards over his 10-year career. But his blocking ability has allowed him to stick in the pros for as long as he has, and he will now take those skills to Atlanta. He will likely serve as a replacement for Luke Stocker, another veteran TE known more for his blocking prowess than his receiving talents.

Smith joins Hayden Hurst and Jaeden Graham in the Falcons’ TE room. He is due a $1.9MM salary in 2021.

Bills To Sign WR Emmanuel Sanders

March 16th, 2021 at 7:04pm CST by Ben Levine

7:05pm: Sanders is indeed joining the Bills. Pelissero reports (via Twitter) that the veteran wideout will be signing a one-year deal with Buffalo. Sanders is set to fly to Buffalo on Thursday after he’s officially released by the Saints, at which time he’ll take a physical and finalize his deal. ESPN’s Adam Schefter tweets that the one-year deal is worth $6MM, including an additional $500K in incentives.

6:23pm: It sounds like Emmanuel Sanders could be heading to Buffalo. NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero reports (via Twitter) that the Bills are in “serious talks” with the veteran free agent wideout.

As Pelissero notes, the Saints have yet to release Sanders, with that transaction expected to take place after 4pm tomorrow due to cap reasons. However, it’s been almost a week since we heard of New Orleans’ intent to cut the veteran, and the team formally announced the impending transaction today.

Sanders joined the Saints on a two-year, $16MM last offseason. The veteran went on to notch 61 catches for 726 yards and five touchdowns during his first season in the NFC. Even though he was productive, he was less efficient on a per-catch basis than usual; his 11.9 ypc average was among the lowest of his career and well below his finest work in Denver.

It’s been a while since Sanders was a 1,000-yard receiver, a mark he exceeded with the Broncos each season between 2014 and 2016. Since 2017, the veteran has averaged 754.5 yards per season, making him a serviceable second or third wideout on the depth chart.

That would presumably be his role in Buffalo. Stefon Diggs and Cole Beasley are Josh Allen‘s top two targets, but following John Brown‘s release, the team is presumably seeking a third receiver who can compete with the likes of Gabriel Davis for targets.

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