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Buffalo Bills News & Rumors

Bills To Sign OT Germain Ifedi

August 29th, 2023 at 8:12pm CST by Ben Levine

The Bills have added some veteran depth to their offensive line. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reports that the Bills are expected to sign offensive tackle Germain Ifedi. The organization worked out Ifedi earlier today.

[RELATED: Bills To Release T David Quessenberry, G Ike Boettger]

Ifedi was a first-round pick by the Seahawks in 2016 and proceeded to spend four years in Seattle, starting all 65 of his appearances (regular season and playoffs). He became a free agent in 2020 after the Seahawks declined his fifth-year option.

He caught on with the Bears, where he proceeded to get into 25 games (23 starts) across two seasons with the organization. He joined the Falcons last offseason and got into all 17 games without a start, with the majority of his snaps coming on special teams. He signed with the Lions earlier this offseason but was cut by the organization this week.

While Ifedi barely played on the offensive line in 2022, he graded out as an above-average lineman as recently as 2021, per Pro Football Focus. That season, the site gave him particularly high marks for his pass-blocking ability, a skill that’s been a theme throughout his career.

It seemed inevitable that the Bills would add some offensive line depth. Brandon Shell was placed on the reserve/retired list during training camp, and Tommy Doyle has since suffered a season-ending injury. Then, the organization made the surprising move today when they let go of David Quessenberry, who was the organization’s primary swing tackle last season.

Bills Reduce Roster To 53 Players

August 29th, 2023 at 7:16pm CST by Ben Levine

The Bills have been busy today, releasing a pair of offensive linemen, trading defensive end Boogie Basham to the Giants, and shifting Von Miller to the reserve/PUP list. The team eventually finalized their roster, cutting down their squad to 53 players:

Released:

Waived:

Placed on IR:

Dean Marlowe was traded to the Bills last November, and the safety began his second stint with the organization after spending three-plus seasons with the organization between 2017 and 2020. The veteran ended up starting a pair of playoff games for Buffalo, collecting seven tackles and an interception. The 31-year-old re-signed with the Bills back in May.

A.J. Klein was another former Bills player added midway through the 2022 season. It was a whirlwind season for the veteran LB. Klein was released by Buffalo in March, and he ended up spending time with the Giants, Ravens, and Bears before returning to the Bills in November. He collected 11 tackles in six games before putting up zeros in a pair of playoff games.

Bills To Trade DE Boogie Basham To Giants

August 29th, 2023 at 9:53am CST by Sam Robinson

9:53am: This move will indeed lead to Ximines being released. The Giants had re-signed the Old Dominion alum midway through this offseason, but ESPN’s Jordan Raanan notes he will be cut. Ximines played four seasons with the Giants, arriving as a Dave Gettleman-era draft choice. While he recorded 4.5 sacks as a rookie, the former third-rounder only managed two in the ensuing three years.

9:20am: Coworkers for several years in Buffalo, Joe Schoen and Brandon Beane have a trade in place. The Giants are set to acquire edge rusher Boogie Basham from the Bills, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com reports.

Schoen was in place as the Bills’ assistant GM when they drafted Basham in the 2021 second round. While Basham has not taken off in Buffalo, the Giants will give him an opportunity. The Giants had been among the most active teams in the market for edge help, per ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.

Beane and his former top lieutenant agreed to a pick-swap deal for Basham, with Pelissero adding the Bills and Giants will exchange 2025 late-round picks. Two years remain on Basham’s rookie contract.

The Bills’ Leonard Floyd addition made Basham a logical trade candidate, with the Bills also rostering 2020 second-rounder A.J. Epenesa and 2021 first-rounder Gregory Rousseau. Von Miller remains this position group’s anchor, but the future Hall of Famer is not certain to begin the season on time. The Bills have until 3pm CT today to move Miller from the active/PUP list to the reserve/PUP list, a designation that would shelve him for at least four games. The team could also go week to week with the high-priced D-end, but Shaq Lawson having re-signed this year also complicated Basham’s Bills place.

Epenesa has also drawn trade interest, per Fowler. One year remains on Epenesa’s rookie deal, but with Miller returning from his second ACL tear as a pro, it would make sense if the Bills held onto the Iowa alum for depth purposes. Epenesa finished with a career-high 6.5 sacks last season, breaking through after not producing more than 1.5 in either of his first two NFL slates. Basham, however, has not taken off. The Wake Forest product has 4.5 sacks and eight QB hits in 23 NFL games.

Chosen 61st overall, Basham has yet to make a start as a pro. Rousseau, Epenesa and then Miller have blocked Basham lineup avenues, and the Giants do not present an immediate starter opportunity. Kayvon Thibodeaux and Azeez Ojulari are in place as Big Blue’s starting edge rushers, but Schoen will take a flier on Basham as a depth piece. The Giants still have Jihad Ward and Oshane Ximines behind their starters. The latter, a former third-round pick, is not a lock to make the roster, The Athletic’s Dan Duggan notes (subscription required). With Basham now en route, Ximines may soon be released.

This move comes after the Giants sent the Cardinals a seventh-round pick for Isaiah Simmons. The team had been rumored to be eyeing another low-risk trade, per Duggan, and given Schoen’s Bills past, they are always a logical candidate to do business with the Giants. Beane and Schoen had first-round trade parameters in place this year, but no deal ended up happening.

Bills To Release T David Quessenberry, G Ike Boettger

August 29th, 2023 at 9:15am CST by Sam Robinson

The Bills look to be making a change at their swing tackle spot. They are releasing David Quessenberry, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports.

This marks more change for Buffalo’s second-string tackle situation. Brandon Shell slid to the reserve/retired list during training camp, while Tommy Doyle suffered a season-ending injury. Quessenberry, who held the Bills’ swing job last season, will now be bumped off the roster.

Buffalo may well be prepared to give its swing job to Ryan Van Demark, a rookie UDFA. Dion Dawkins and Spencer Brown remain in place as the team’s starters. While the Bills are fairly deep at guard, rostering David Edwards and Ryan Bates behind likely starters Connor McGovern and O’Cyrus Torrence, the defending AFC East champs may look around to upgrade at tackle.

Regarding that interior depth, the Bills are also cutting veteran guard Ike Boettger, per the Buffalo News’ Jay Skurski. Although Boettger re-signed with the team this offseason, the Bills’ investments in Torrence, Edwards and new left guard starter Connor McGovern made him a cut candidate.

Boettger, 28, rehabbed a severe injury last season, coming off the Bills’ PUP list late in the year. Boettger had started 17 games for Buffalo between the 2020 and ’21 seasons, and while it is possible the Bills circle back to him after making PUP- or IR-related moves, he is no longer with the team.

Quessenberry, 32, worked as the Titans’ primary right tackle starter in 2021, helping the team compensate for some issues staffing the position post-Jack Conklin. The Bills picked up the veteran blocker in 2022, and he made three starts for the team. Considering teams’ interest in acquiring O-line depth, Quessenberry figures to generate interest on the open market.

Bills Begin Roster Cuts, Release 7

August 27th, 2023 at 3:23pm CST by Adam La Rose

Teams have until Tuesday afternoon to get their 90-man rosters down to 53, but a number of them are deep into that process already with the preseason now in the books. The Bills trimmed their roster on Sunday by releasing the following seven players:

Each player, with the exception of White, has regular season NFL experience, although none have much in the way of game action. Sternberger is the most notable name on the list, given his time with the Packers to start his career. The former third-rounder had plenty of expectations after his career at Texas A&M, but things did not go according to plan in Green Bay.

Sternberger logged only 18 games across two seasons with the team, and his last NFL action came in 2020. He bounced around to the Commanders and Steelers after his time in Green Bay came to an end, and he played in the USFL this past spring. The 27-year-old led the league in receiving touchdowns with the Birmingham Stallions, which landed him an opportunity with the Bills. He will instead wind up on their practice squad or find himself in search of another new NFL home.

Depth along the offensive line, especially at the tackle position, has been a talking point for Buffalo this summer. McGhin, who has bounced around several teams’ practice squads in his career, has made two career appearances – though they both came in 2019. Especially if Buffalo elects not to add more experienced fill-in options up front in the coming days, he could find himself on the team’s taxi squad.

Trey Lance Fallout: Trade Request, Other Suitors, Cowboys

August 26th, 2023 at 9:39am CST by Ben Levine

The Trey Lance era in San Francisco proved to be short lived, as the 49ers traded the former third-overall pick to the Cowboys last night. While the quarterback went from franchise cornerstone to QB3 in only two years, general manager John Lynch still had high praise for Lance following the deal.

[RELATED: 49ers Trade QB Trey Lance to Cowboys]

“Really hard day, such a wonderful young man,” Lynch said last night (via NFL.com’s Coral Smith). “We took a shot and it didn’t work out. We own that. We take accountability for it. But I think, as I think you guys do, his story is still very much unwritten. I’m excited for Trey. Dallas stepped up and really wanted him and they came after him. And I think it’s going to be a great landing spot for him. I can tell everybody, it wasn’t for lack of effort on Trey’s part or on our part, that it didn’t work. Circumstances took hold and he struggled through injuries and this team’s ready to win. We like our quarterback room. We like Brock Purdy a lot, we like Sam Darnold and we like Brandon Allen. So we wish Trey all the best in Dallas. We’ll always care about that young man and admire his work ethic and the person that he is.”

As ESPN’s Adam Schefter tweeted this morning, Lance actually requested to be traded earlier this week after learning he’d be the third quarterback behind Purdy and Darnold. The young QB wasn’t necessarily looking for a chance to start elsewhere; according to 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, Lance was happy with being the top backup in a different situation.

“He told us that he would like another opportunity to go somewhere where he had a chance to be the No. 2,” Shanahan said (via NFL.com). “We thought we got some good deals for him; there was a number of teams involved. To end up getting the fourth was a little better than we anticipated and clears up a lot of money and allows a better situation for him, too.”

Unsurprisingly, the Cowboys weren’t the only suitor for Lance’s services. Dianna Russini tweets that the Bills, Ravens, and Lions were among the teams that showed interest in the young signal caller. Russini adds that the 49ers intended to trade Lance to the AFC, but the organization pivoted to an NFC foe when they only received offers of conditional fifth-round picks (that were more likely to be sixth-round picks). Schefter notes that the 49ers began fielding offers for Lance on Thursday, and the Cowboys separated themselves from the pack on Friday.

Lynch and Shanahan weren’t the only members of the 49ers to speak kindly of Lance. Purdy mentioned how his former teammate helped him during his improbable run late last season.

“Going in last year and then him just being by my side from the get-go — sideline, meetings, in the locker room, wherever we are at — man, he’s been a real one,” Purdy said (via Cam Inman of the Mercury News). “…Lance helped me come into the league and welcome me with open arms and showed me the ropes to this whole thing. So can’t tell you how grateful I am for him and to have him in my life and to be here with him. So, forever grateful for Trey.”

Attention will now shift to Dallas, where Lance will serve as the backup to Dak Prescott. According to ESPN’s Todd Archer, the Cowboys had a second-round grade on the quarterback during the 2021 draft. That’s obviously a far cry from the third-overall pick, but it still goes to show that the organization believed the prospect could at least be a worthy NFL quarterback.

Minor NFL Transactions: 8/25/23

August 25th, 2023 at 8:02pm CST by Ely Allen

Here are today’s minor moves heading into the final weekend of preseason games this year:

Arizona Cardinals

  • Signed: C Cohl Cabral

Baltimore Ravens

  • Waived from IR with injury settlement: WR Shemar Bridges

Buffalo Bills

  • Released from IR with injury settlement: DE Shane Ray

Carolina Panthers

Houston Texans

Miami Dolphins

Minnesota Vikings

Pittsburgh Steelers

Ray’s unlikely return to the NFL will have to wait a bit longer, it seems. Having not appeared in an NFL regular season game since 2018, Ray’s opportunity in Buffalo has come to an end. His bid to play alongside former Broncos teammate Von Miller will fall short due to injury.

Zentner is likely a short-term signing for Houston, who lost punter Cameron Johnston to a tweaked calf. Johnston shouldn’t need long to get back to the field, but Zentner will be asked to fill in for the team’s preseason game against the Saints this weekend.

Latest On Bills’ Offensive Line

August 25th, 2023 at 5:07pm CST by Sam Robinson

Dion Dawkins, Spencer Brown and Mitch Morse are locked into Week 1 starting roles for the Bills, but uncertainty clouds the guard spots. And recent developments have Buffalo’s swing tackle role in flux.

If healthy, Connor McGovern is in place as the Bills’ starting left guard. The Bills gave the former Cowboys starter a three-year, $22.35MM deal early in free agency. The fifth-year blocker, however, suffered a knee injury this week. No return timetable has emerged for the team’s top guard investment, ESPN.com’s Alaina Getzenberg notes. Considering the team has already held a long-running right guard battle, McGovern’s availability adds to the confusion here. For what it’s worth, McGovern does not believe this is a serious injury, per the Buffalo News’ Ryan O’Halloran.

Ryan Bates and second-round rookie O’Cyrus Torrence have competed for the RG role. Although the Bills matched a Bears RFA offer sheet (four years, $17MM) for Bates last year, Torrence may be close to overtaking him for the starting gig. The Bills have given Torrence two preseason starts and used him throughout Josh Allen‘s cameo in the second exhibition game. This usage points to a starting assignment coming soon, The Athletic’s Joe Buscaglia writes (subscription required).

Pro Football Focus graded Bates as a mid-pack guard last season, ranking him 41st at the position. The team chose Torrence 59th overall — the earliest O-line investment for the Bills since the Cody Ford pick (39th) in 2019 — and ESPN’s Scouts Inc. graded the Florida product as the draft’s best pure guard prospect. Torrence made 34 straight starts to close his college career, and Buscaglia adds the Bills have been pleased with his development.

McGovern being unavailable for Week 1 would open the door to Bates (19 career starts) keeping a starting role, though the team also has UFA addition David Edwards as an option. A three-year Rams starter, Edwards signed a low-end Bills deal (one year, $1.77MM) this offseason. A concussion limited Edwards to four starts last season, but the former Super Bowl starter has made 45 first-string appearances. Edwards’ arrival also complicates matters for longtime Bills blocker Ike Boettger, who worked with the third-team O-line during the first two preseason tilts. Boettger (17 career starts) sticking around for a sixth Bills season may hinge on his performance against the Bears tonight, Buscaglia adds.

The Bills have run into hurdles to fill the swing post behind Dawkins and Brown. Brandon Shell retired midway through training camp, and Tommy Doyle suffered a season-ending injury. David Quessenberry, a former Titans starter who filled this role last year, has not impressed this summer, and Buscaglia notes rookie UDFA Ryan Van Demark is battling the veteran for the job. Quessenberry, who turned 33 this week, has 26 career starts.

It would be interesting to see if the Bills will look outside to address this swing issue. Jason Peters, who began his career with the team, said recently he is looking to play a 19th season. Peters, 41, may be a name to watch, per Buscaglia. Peters caught on late with the Cowboys last year, signing on Sept. 5, and played both tackle and guard as the team dealt with injuries.

Minor NFL Transactions: 8/22/23

August 22nd, 2023 at 8:51pm CST by Ben Levine

Today’s minor moves:

Arizona Cardinals

Buffalo Bills

Denver Broncos

Green Bay Packers

  • Signed: CB Elijah Hamilton
  • Waived/injured: OL Jake Hanson

Houston Texans

Jacksonville Jaguars

Los Angeles Chargers

  • Signed: LB Tae Crowder
  • Waived/injured: OT Andrew Trainer

Miami Dolphins

New England Patriots

  • Claimed off waivers (from Panthers): DL Marquan McCall
  • Released: WR Tre Nixon

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

  • Signed: WR Malik Flowers
  • Waived: CB Montrae Braswell

Tae Crowder has found his next gig after getting cut by the Steelers in May. The former Mr. Irrelevant spent the first three seasons of his career with the Giants, including a 2021 season where he compiled 130 tackles and a pair of interceptions. He started only eight of his 13 appearances last season before getting cut, but he quickly caught on with Pittsburgh’s practice squad. Entering his age-26 season, Crowder is a low-risk option for the Chargers, but he could provide big returns if he can show his form from 2021.

Marquan McCall was a surprise cut by the Panthers earlier this week. The former UDFA ended up getting into 16 games for the Panthers last season, finishing with 15 tackles, two TFLs, and one QB hit. He’ll now look to catch on in New England. He’ll be taking a roster spot from wideout Tre Nixon. The former seventh-round pick has spent the past few seasons on New England’s practice squad but never got into a regular season game.

Minor NFL Transactions: 8/21/23

August 21st, 2023 at 8:43pm CST by Ben Levine

Today’s minor transactions:

Arizona Cardinals

Atlanta Falcons

Buffalo Bills

Carolina Panthers

Chicago Bears

Cincinnati Bengals

Denver Broncos

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

  • Signed: LB Marvin Pierre
  • Placed on IR: TE Tyler Davis

Kansas City Chiefs

  • Signed: WR Juwan Green
  • Waived/injured: WR Kekoa Crawford
  • Released from IR: DB Anthony Witherstone

Miami Dolphins

  • Signed: QB James Blackman
  • Waived/injured: CB Tino Ellis

Minnesota Vikings

New Orleans Saints

  • Released from IR: OL Scott Lashley

Pittsburgh Steelers

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

  • Signed: TE Sal Cannella

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tennessee Titans

Brian Hill comes to San Francisco with 48 career games under his belt. He had a career year for the Falcons back in 2020, compiling 664 yards from scrimmage in 16 games. The RB has bounced around the NFL a bit since, spending time with the Titans, Browns, and 49ers (two stints). Following stints in the CFL and XFL, the 27-year-old will now add some depth to a San Francisco running backs room that already includes Christian McCaffrey, Elijah Mitchell, Jordan Mason, Tyrion Davis-Price, and Jeremy McNichols.

Trevon Coley started 29 games for the Browns through his first two seasons in the NFL, but he’s struggled to stay on the field since. The defensive lineman got into seven games for the Colts in 2019 and (most recently) six games for the Cardinals in 2020. In total, the 29-year-old has 100 career tackles and 3.5 sacks on his resume.

Adrian Colbert won’t play for the Bears in 2023 after being placed on IR, although there’s a chance he’s cut loose and allowed to play for another squad. The veteran safety has played in 41 career games, starting 22. He’s been limited to only 14 games since the 2020 campaign, including a two-game stint with the Bears in 2022.

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