Bills To Sign QB Keith Wenning
The Bills are signing quarterback Keith Wenning, as Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets. He’ll provide the team with depth to close out the preseason as Tyrod Taylor and T.J. Yates deal with concussions.
Before Wenning was added to the roster, Nathan Peterman was the team’s only healthy quarterback. Naturally, the Bills do not want to play Peterman for the entire preseason finale, so Wenning will be able to take the snaps as well as the injury risk.
Wenning has familiarity with offensive coordinator Rick Dennison, so he should be able to jump in pretty quickly and figure out the offense. And, in the unlikely event that both Taylor and Yates are not cleared for Week 1, Wenning could have a chance at a job.
Bills Trade LB Reggie Ragland To Chiefs
The Bills sure love to make trades. On Monday, the Bills shipped linebacker Reggie Ragland to the Chiefs for a 2019 fourth-round draft pick, according to an announcement from Kansas City. 
Ragland, a 2016 second-round pick made by the Doug Whaley regime, was fighting for a roster spot this summer. The 23-year-old missed the entirety of his rookie campaign with an ACL injury and has yet to see live NFL action.
The Bills are not only under new leadership, but they also have an entirely different defensive scheme. Rex Ryan‘s 3-4 is gone and has been replaced with Sean McDermott‘s 4-3. Ragland, apparently, was not a fit for Buffalo’s new-look D, but he could find a home in KC’s 3-4.
The Bills traded up to take the Alabama product in 2016, giving up a second-rounder (49th overall), fourth-rounder (117th overall), and a future fourth-rounder for the 41st-overall pick. Between the 2014 and 2015 seasons, Ragland racked up 195 tackles, 17 tackles for loss, and four sacks.
Assuming he cracks the 53-man roster, Ragland will serve as support for Chiefs starting inside linebackers Ramik Wilson and Derrick Johnson.
Ragland is the latest Bills player to be traded, following the path of wide receiver Sammy Watkins, cornerback Ronald Darby, and quarterback Cardale Jones. Between these swaps and their draft day deal with the Chiefs, the Bills now have an impressive stockpile of future selections, including the Chiefs’ 2018 first round pick, the Rams’ 2018 second round pick, the Eagles’ 2018 third round pick, and the Chiefs’ 2019 fourth round pick.
Reggie Ragland Fighting For Roster Spot
- With both Tyrod Taylor and T.J. Yates in the concussion protocol, the Bills are considering signing another quarterback, head coach Sean McDermott told reporters, including Vic Carucci of the Buffalo News (Twitter link). At present, Buffalo only boasts one healthy quarterback in rookie Nathan Peterman, meaning it could be difficult for the club to even get through a practice session. As such, the Bills are likely looking at camp arms or developmental options, not a Colin Kaepernick-level addition.
- McDermott also confirmed that 2016 second-round linebacker Reggie Ragland is fighting for a Bills roster spot, as Joe Buscaglia of WKBW tweets. Playing behind Preston Brown and Gerald Hodges, Ragland has been mentioned as a trade candidate, but it’s also possible he’s simply waived. Ragland, 23, missed the entirey of his rookie campaign with an ACL injury, and neither McDermott nor general manager Brandon Beane has any allegiance to the Alabama product given the he was drafted by Buffalo’s previous regime.
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Bills OT Seantrel Henderson Accepts Pay Cut
Bills offensive tackle Seantrel Henderson agreed to a pay cut in late June, according to Mike Rodak of ESPN.com. Scheduled to earn a non-guaranteed base salary of $1.797MM thanks to the NFL’s proven performance escalator, Henderson will now bring in just $690K, per Rodak.
Of course, Henderson won’t earn the entirety of that $690K, as he has five games left on a 10-game substance abuse ban that was handed down in November. Henderson, who maintains that he uses marijuana to treat his Crohn’s disease, can also earn roughly $500K in per-game roster bonuses and $800K through not-likely-to-be-earned incentives, reports Rodak. All told, Henderson’s 2017 cap charge has been reduced from $1.808MM to roughly $982K.
A 16-game starter during his rookie season in 2014, Henderson appeared on only 34 offensive snaps a season ago. When he’s activated later this season, the 25-year-old Henderson could find himself buried on Buffalo’s right tackle depth chart behind rookie Dion Dawkins and veterans Jordan Mills and Michael Ola.
Marcell Dareus Sent Away From Bills Game
Marcell Dareus‘ standing with the new Bills regime took a hit Saturday night when the team sent the cornerstone defensive tackle home from its preseason game against the Ravens for violating a team rule. The nature of the violation isn’t known, but first-year GM Brandon Beane addressed the matter pregame.
- Shortly after the Bills sent Dareus home, they lost their quarterback to a concussion. Tyrod Taylor left the game because of a head injury, the team announced. He is in the concussion protocol. A third-down sack led to Taylor’s removal from the game. Nathan Peterman replaced the starter.
Fallout From Julian Edelman Injury
Tom Brady offered hopes Julian Edelman could come back this season after the Patriots‘ third preseason game Friday night, but after the team confirmed earlier today the ninth-year wideout tore his right ACL, the Pats will have to adjust again. The team’s primary slot receiver post-Wes Welker, Edelman recorded a career-high 1,106 receiving yards last season and played in 16 games. Edelman missed nearly half the season in 2015, and Brady’s production dipped without his top volume target. The iconic quarterback’s completion rate plummeted from 68 percent in nine Edelman games to 60 percent in seven contests without him. But the Patriots, as Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk notes, are deeper now and are expected to use a group effort to replace the 31-year-old receiver.
New England now employs Brandin Cooks and Chris Hogan, along with second-year player Malcolm Mitchell and a slew of viable receiving backs. Danny Amendola served as Edelman’s primary replacement in 2015, and the veteran figures to be part of the solution two years later. Florio uses New England’s 2016 Super Bowl run as an example of the resourceful team winning without a key pass-catcher. While the Pats won Super Bowl LI without Rob Gronkowski‘s services down the stretch, it’s hard to bank on the all-world tight end being available throughout this now-Edelman-less season. That said, Gronkowski did play in 15 games in both 2014 and ’15. Brady’s only played one game without Gronk or Edelman — 2015 loss to the Eagles — since the pair became the Patriots’ top chain-movers four years ago.
Here’s the latest fallout from the injury situation.
- AFC execs and coaches concur with Florio’s assessment, to some degree. “They’ll find another way to do it. So initially, [it’ll hurt them] some, but in the end not much at all,” an AFC coach texted Albert Breer of SI.com. Another added: “Amendola will have to stay healthy and pick up the slack. It won’t be easy, but they’ll make it work.” The 31-year-old Amendola reworked his contract again this offseason to stay with the Pats in what is the final year of his deal. Amendola amassed 243 air yards last season. “Health of others is key,” an AFC exec said, via Breer. “Amendola and [Gronkowski] need to stay healthy, but their offense is diverse enough to pick it up.”
- Edelman will still make nearly $7MM this season, with Ben Volin of the Boston Globe (Twitter link) relaying that in addition to his $3MM base salary, the slot bastion collected $3.5MM of his signing bonus and $250K workout bonus. Edelman, though, will miss out on $750K in per-game roster bonuses and a possible $500K in incentives, via Volin (on Twitter).
- Anquan Boldin retired from the Bills last weekend and would be an intriguing fit if the 36-year-old pass-catcher could be convinced to delay his busy-looking post-career endeavors, but Volin tweets Buffalo placed Boldin on its reserve/retired list. The Bills hold his rights and would have to relinquish them to green-light a Boldin/Patriots future. Boldin also said a day after his retirement intentions surfaced he won’t make a late-season return, insisting he’s done with the game.
- Edelman will stick around Foxborough to do his rehab, Volin tweets, likely offering help to his replacements as they attempt to fill the void created by the absence of one of the game’s top slot targets.
Bills Sign Eric Wood To Extension
The Bills plan to keep Eric Wood around through the remainder of the 2010s, signing the veteran center to a two-year extension, the team announced.
Wood was entering a contract year. The 31-year-old center has been Buffalo’s starting snapper since entering the league in 2009. This deal will take him through 2019.
The extension secures Wood $16MM in new money, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. It also adds $5.28MM to his 2017 wages. Wood counted for $7.58MM on Buffalo’s books this season. Rapoport adds (via Twitter) this deal comes with $14.2MM in guarantees. Factoring into these figures: Wood received a $6.5MM signing bonus and will collect a $1.75MM roster bonus next week.
This continues to fortify Buffalo’s interior line. The team matched a Rams offer sheet to retain backup center Ryan Groy earlier this year. Groy is signed through 2018.
It also answers the question about the Bills’ belief their second-longest-tenured player can bounce back from a broken leg sustained in November 2016. The team’s 2009 first-round pick, Wood will remain entrenched as Buffalo’s starter and one of the cornerstones of a rushing attack that led the league last season. The Bills paced the NFL by nearly 15 rushing yards per game in 2016, averaging 164.4 per contest.
Prior to the injury that limited Wood to nine games in 2016, the Louisville product played in at least 14 games in the previous four campaigns.
Bills Confirm They Won’t Trade McCoy
After trading two players who were among the best on their roster in wide receiver Sammy Watkins and cornerback Ronald Darby earlier this month, the Bills look like a team in the midst of a rebuild. As such, speculation that the Bills could shop their top player, 29-year-old running back LeSean McCoy, has come to the fore recently. That reportedly isn’t going to happen, though, and McCoy said Thursday that general manager Brandon Beane and head coach Sean McDermott have told him as much.
“There’s no trade talks,” McCoy informed reporters, including Mike Rodak of ESPN.com. “I talked to my coaches. I talked to Sean and Brandon, the GM. I have a lot of respect for the guys. We had a great conversation. I’ll leave it at that. One thing about it is everybody can have their own opinions or make up things. Nowadays with social media, everything is blown out of proportion.”
The Bills have gone just 15-17 since acquiring McCoy from the Eagles in March 2015 and, thanks in part to their recent future-oriented trades and the abrupt retirement of Anquan Boldin, look like shoo-ins to miss the playoffs for an NFL-worst 18th straight year in 2017. But McCoy insisted Thursday that the team is aiming to contend this season, and that he’s content to remain in Buffalo.
“They’re all in to win,” he said. “We’re a team and that’s what we’re trying to do. I feel like I’m one of the key guys here. I don’t want to leave. Buffalo embraced me with open arms and they took me in.”
A four-time Pro Bowler and two-time first-team All-Pro in Philadelphia, McCoy has remained a premier weapon with the long-struggling Bills. He made his second Pro Bowl in as many years in Buffalo last season, when he ranked third in the NFL in yards per carry (5.4) and fourth in rushing touchdowns (13) during a 234-attempt, 1,267-yard campaign. He also amassed 50 receptions, giving him at least that many in a season for the fourth time in his nine-year career.
It’s apparent McCoy’s 10th season will be spent in Buffalo, which can control him through the 2019 campaign on the five-year, $40.05MM deal it awarded him in 2015. He had been the league’s highest-paid back on a multiyear deal until the Falcons’ Devonta Freeman inked a five-year, $41.25MM extension earlier this month.
Bills Notes: Watkins, Ragland
Bills head coach Sean McDermott admitted it’s a “fair question” as to whether Buffalo would have traded Sammy Watkins had they known fellow wide receiver Anquan Boldin would soon retire, according to Mike Rodak of ESPN.com (multiple links). Although McDermott referred to the two transactions as “separate entities,” Boldin announced his retirement just four days after the Bills shipped Watkins to the Rams for cornerback E.J. Gaines and a second-round selection. Of course, Buffalo also acquired pass-catcher Jordan Matthews on the same day it traded Watkins, and the Bills are “always” examining upgrades at wide receiver, per McDermott.
- Reporters peppered Bills linebacker Reggie Ragland with questions on Tuesday about whether he’s a trade candidate, according to Jay Skurski of the Buffalo News. As one would expect, Ragland suggested that he’s not worried about rumors and noted that he’s “got to keep getting better,” though it’s nonetheless an open question as to whether he’s a fit in the Bills’ defense. The Bills chose Ragland in the second round of the 2016 draft after a costly trade up, but he missed his rookie season with a torn ACL and is now under the thumb of a new administration in Buffalo. The Doug Whaley–Rex Ryan duo responsible for the Ragland pick is gone, as is the Bills’ previous 3-4 scheme. Ragland has languished in a third-team role in Buffalo’s 4-3 alignment this preseason under Ryan’s replacement, McDermott, leading Pro Football Rumors’ Dallas Robinson to observe last week that the ex-Alabama star could be in another uniform soon.
Bills Not Shopping LeSean McCoy
The Bills are not shopping running back LeSean McCoy and have no intention of doing so, sources tell Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.
On its face, a McCoy trade could make sense for a Buffalo club that looks to be on the verge of a rebuild (if it isn’t already there). The Bills, of course, dealt wide receiver Sammy Watkins and cornerback Ronald Darby earlier this month, and while general manager Brandon Beane received veterans in those deals (Jordan Matthews and E.J. Gaines), the clear impetus behind the moves was draft capital. Buffalo picked up a 2018 second-round pick in the Watkins trade, and a 2018 third-rounder in the Darby swap.
McCoy, then, doesn’t particularly fit in with the Bills’ current direction, especially given his age (he turned 29 in July) and his salary. Signed through 2019, McCoy is currently the league’s second-highest-paid running back on a multi-year deal, trailing only Devonta Freeman. If McCoy was traded, Buffalo would pick up $6.25MM in 2017 cap space, with $2.625MM and $5.25MM in dead money accruing on the team’s salary cap in 2018 and 2019, respectively.
Clearing cap space wouldn’t be the primary goal in a McCoy deal, however — instead, the Bills would be aiming to acquire some sort of draft pick compensation for a still-productive running back. Last season, McCoy appeared in 15 games and topped 1,000 rushing for the fifth time in his career while scoring 13 times on the ground. He also added 50 receptions (his highest total since 2013) for 356 yards and one more score.
The Bills don’t have an excessive amount of depth behind at running back behind McCoy, though, and 2016 fifth-round selection Jonathan Williams would likely become the primary beneficiary of a McCoy trade. Veterans Mike Tolbert, Joe Banyard, and Taiwan Jones are also on the Buffalo roster, but none have experience as a lead back.