Bills' McDermott Controlled Draft
- Although Doug Whaley was technically in charge for the Bills‘ draft this year, Breer hears that coach Sean McDermott was given carte blanche to pull players off of the board for character reasons. That could help to explain this month’s surprising move to jettison wide receiver Sammy Watkins and cornerback Ronald Darby via trade. Darby came into the league with some red flags and his performance has dipped since his strong rookie season in 2015. Watkins, meanwhile, didn’t have character issues, but his lingering injury problems could have posed a hurdle for the first-year head coach. Brandon Beane now holds the GM title, but McDermott may have been the real driving force behind the trades.
Bills' Matthews Says He'll Play Week 1
- New Bills wide receiver Jordan Matthews has a chip fracture in his sternum, but he says he’ll be ready to go for the season opener (via The Associated Press). “I want to go out there and prove myself to my teammates. I want them to know that I’m tough, and I want them to know that I’m not the type of guy that wants to miss practice and just be there for games.” Matthews said. “I’m extremely confident I will be ready to play for Week 1.” Since being selected in the 2014 draft, Matthews led Philly receivers with a combined 225 catches, 2,873 yards and 19 touchdowns. He’ll be counted on for major production after the team jettisoned Sammy Watkins and saw Anquan Boldin retire over the weekend.
Anquan Boldin Rules Out Late Season Return
After less than two weeks in Buffalo, Anquan Boldin informed the team that he is retiring. The timing is unusual, but Boldin insists that he is not leaving the sport simply to get away from the Bills. He also insists that he is retired for good. 
[RELATED: Anquan Boldin Retires From NFL]
“I’m done with the sport of football,” Boldin said when asked about the possibility of hooking on with a contender late in the season (via Ross Tucker of SiriusXM on Twitter). “My passion is elsewhere.”
That passion, he says, is to help heal the great social and political divide in the United States. When asked about what changed his mind in recent weeks, he cited the events in Charlottesville and did not mention the team’s blockbuster trades.
“I’m uncomfortable with how divided we are as a country. This is not a fly by night decision. It’s something I want to dedicate my life to,” Boldin said.
After dedicating his life to the sport throughout his amateur days and 14 NFL seasons, one can hardly blame Boldin for switching gears. When he celebrates his 37th birthday in October, Boldin will be doing something other than playing football.
Anquan Boldin To Leave Bills, Retire
Anquan Boldin signed with the Bills earlier this month in advance of a 15th NFL season, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to be in the cards for the veteran wideout any longer.
Boldin informed the Bills on Sunday he plans to retire instead of suiting up for them in the regular season, ESPN.com’s Jim Trotter reports (on Twitter).
The former first-round pick signed a one-year deal that was worth as much as $4MM and said he would have signed with the Bills with or without Sammy Watkins on the roster. GM Brandon Beane also used Boldin’s acquisition to illustrate how the franchise wasn’t rebuilding after dealing Watkins and Ronald Darby.
Beane confirmed Boldin is retiring, via Twitter. The wideout officially spent just less than two weeks with the Bills.
Boldin retires as one of the best receivers of his era. The former Cardinals, Ravens, 49ers and Lions cog has the ninth-most receptions in NFL history, with 1,076. Only two active players — ex-teammate Larry Fitzgerald and longtime Cowboys tight end Jason Witten — have more catches than Boldin. A potential Hall of Famer, Boldin is 14th in receiving yards (13,779) and 23rd in touchdown receptions (82).
“Football has afforded me a platform throughout my career to have a greater impact on my humanitarian work,” Boldin said in a statement, via Trotter (on Twitter). “At this time, I feel drawn to make the larger fight for human rights a priority. My life’s purpose is bigger than football.”
Set to turn 37 in October, Boldin operated as a starer during all 14 seasons of his career. The Florida State product finishes his run as a three-time Pro Bowler and having helped the 2012 Ravens to a Super Bowl title. He also teamed with Fitzgerald and Kurt Warner in elevating the Cardinals to their franchise peak, with an NFC title and narrow Super Bowl loss in 2008.
Boldin authored seven 1,000-yard seasons — for three different teams — and caught a career-high 11 touchdown passes during that ’08 season. He also recorded one of the best rookie seasons, with the ’03 Cards, by a receiver in NFL history, catching 101 passes for 1,377 yards and eight touchdowns.
Last year with the Lions, Boldin signed a one-year deal and started all 16 games. He served as a key security blanket for Matthew Stafford, catching 67 passes and scoring eight touchdowns.
Boldin was a free agent throughout the offseason and was connected to the Lions and Ravens. He ended up signing with the Bills and was expected to provide a veteran presence to a team that has revamped its receiving corps.
Gone are Watkins, Robert Woods and Marquise Goodwin. In their places are now Jordan Matthews, second-round rookie Zay Jones and former Raiders starters Andre Holmes and Rod Streater, the latter of whom is currently injured. Former Panthers wideout Philly Brown and Patriots special-teamer Brandon Tate are also on the roster. This move deprives the Bills of a proven pass-catcher and puts more pressure on Matthews, also currently sidelined with an injury, to fill the void this season.
Minor NFL Transactions: 8/20/17
Today’s minor moves:
Baltimore Ravens
- Waived from IR: WR Kenny Bell, LB Lamar Louis
Buffalo Bills
- Signed: TE Rory Anderson, S Adrian McDonald
- Waived: P/K Austin Rehkow
- Waived/injured: TE Jason Croom
Minnesota Vikings
- Signed: QB Mitch Leidner
- Waived: LB Darnell Sankey
Seattle Seahawks
- Signed: T Tyrus Thompson (Twitter link via Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Claimed: T Marquis Lucas
Bills Work Out TE Chase Ford
The Bills are apparently in the market for a tight end. According to ESPN’s Adam Caplan (via Twitter), the team worked out veteran Chase Ford today.
Ford, 27, hasn’t played an NFL game since 2014, but he showed plenty of promise during his tenure with the Vikings. Between 2013 and 2014, the former undrafted free agent out of Miami hauled in 34 catches for 391 yards and one touchdown in 20 games (five starts). Since that time, the 27-year-old has spent time with the Ravens and Browns (he also had a stint with the Eagles to begin his professional career).
Despite underwhelming performance from the position in recent years, the Bills did little to improve their tight end corps this offseason. Charles Clay, who signed with the organization prior to the 2015 season, has averaged 54 receptions for 540 yards and three touchdowns during his two years in Buffalo. Vic Carucci of the Buffalo News previously lamented the team’s lack of tight end production, and he attributed Clay’s $9MM cap hit to the fact that the Bills didn’t add reinforcement this summer.
If Ford is ultimately signed, he’ll still have plenty of competition to overcome for a reserve role. Besides Clay, the Bills are currently rostering tight ends Nick O’Leary, Gerald Christian, and Logan Thomas.
Carucci: Glenn Injury Could Force Bills To Gauge Outside T Help
- Reggie Ragland has yet to assimilate well into Sean McDermott‘s scheme, and Vic Carucci of the Buffalo News expects the Bills to attempt to trade the ex-Alabama stalwart. Carucci notes a trade to a team that uses a 3-4 defense would make sense. Buffalo has shifted to a 4-3, and the 2016 second-round pick’s current status — stationed on the third team — is not exactly acceptable for such a big recent investment. PFR’s Dallas Robinson put Ragland on his list of trade candidates.
- Should Cordy Glenn‘s foot trouble linger much longer, Carucci expects the Bills to target outside tackle help. Specifying the waiver wire as the player-procurement practice of choice to add a tackle, Carucci notes second-round rookie Dion Dawkins would be the top in-house option to start there if Glenn is unable to man his post. After Austin Pasztor‘s Falcons agreement, the tackle market looks thin. McDermott said (via Mike Rodak of ESPN.com) he’s not quite ready to relocate Dawkins from the right tackle competition, where he’s battling incumbent Jordan Mills. However, Dawkins took left-edge reps Friday in practice, while Seantrel Henderson — suspended for the season’s first five games — lined up at right tackle.
Bills Not Considering QB Change
- Bills coach Sean McDermott says he is not considering a quarterback change, despite comments that made it seem as though he could move away from Tyrod Taylor (Twitter link via Vic Carucci of The Buffalo News). Taylor struggled against Jacksonville on Thursday night, leading some to speculate that rookie Nathan Peterman could step in as the starter. The Bills inked Taylor to a new two-year deal this past offseason, but they’re really only tied to him through 2017. Only $1MM of his $10MM salary in 2018 is guaranteed and he could theoretically be released before he can collect on his $6MM roster bonus early in the 2018 league year.
T.J. Yates' Roster Spot Could Be In Jeopardy
- Fifth-round rookie Nathan Peterman has passed T.J. Yates on the Bills’ depth chart at quarterback, leading Mike Rodak of ESPN.com to argue that the team should release the veteran. The Bills would only have the untested Peterman behind starter Tyrod Taylor at that point, but as Rodak writes, the loss of Taylor for an extended period would kill their already slim hopes of contending anyhow. Further, cutting Yates would allow Buffalo to keep another player at a position of need, and it’s possible the team would be able to re-sign him at a later date if an emergency were to arise under center. Yates nearly went without an employer last season until the Dolphins signed him in mid-December, after all, though he did suffer an ACL tear late in the previous year.
NFC West Notes: Rams, Watkins, Seahawks
Here’s a look at the NFC West:
- The Rams started discussing a Sammy Watkins trade with the Bills in the spring when they declined to exercise his fifth-year option in the spring, L.A. GM Les Snead told SiriusXM (Twitter link). The Watkins deal came completely out of left field, so it’s impressive that the two sides were able to keep rumblings of the deal out of the media for four months. The Rams acquired Watkins and a 2018 sixth-round selection in exchange for for cornerback E.J. Gaines and a 2018 second-round pick. Los Angeles has already expressed interest in inking him to an extension.
- Tramaine Brock‘s one-year deal with the Seahawks is for the minimum salary, Bob Condotta of The Seattle Times tweets. In the days leading up to his deal with Seattle, we heard that Brock had interest from as many as a dozen teams. Since Brock will only be making the minimum, it sounds either like the level of interest league-wide was overstated or Brock took less money from a quality team like the Seahawks in order to give himself a better platform for free agency next year.
- 49ers GM John Lynch says he has spoken with Broncos GM John Elway about which players might be available in trades (Twitter link via Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area). Lynch offered no specifics, so we don’t know which players were discussed or how close the two sides were/are to a deal.