The Buffalo Bills are dealing with a myriad of injuries after two weeks of preseason play, most notably in their receiving room.
Curtis Samuel is dealing with turf toe and is considered week-to-week, and Marquez Valdes-Scantling is dealing with a neck injury he sustained against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Bills already cut Chase Claypool after he was put on IR, meaning they are currently down three receivers since training camp began.
So what should the Bills do? Go out and sign another veteran receiver like Michael Thomas or Hunter Renfrow? Those would both be strong moves at this point in the offseason and give Buffalo some veteran value on offense.
Or, and hear me out when I say this - should they make like Kevin Harvick in the 2007 Daytona 500, come out of nowhere, and try to land Brandon Aiyuk?
I know, I know - it’s basically a two-team staredown between Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Omar Khan and San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch. However, wouldn’t you like them to at least call? It’s not every day that a star of Aiyuk’s caliber is seemingly available, and the Bills’ biggest need right now is receiver. And while they are clearly leaning into a more efficiency-over-knockout blow type of offense, you can still do that with Aiyuk on the roster. He’s spent his career in that exact type of offense anyway.
Now, the money side of things would get a bit tricky. The Bills are projected to be $15 million over the cap heading into 2025, which is the fourth-worst in the NFL and they’d have to give Aiyuk a deal somewhere in the range of $28-30 million per year. It’s certainly not impossible - we know the cap can be toyed with and money can be moved around to make it happen - but it’s certainly an obstacle, nonetheless.
In terms of a trade, the Bills are in a spot where they can afford to give up a first-round pick and sway the 49ers toward them rather than the Steelers. They have an elite quarterback, a solid offensive line, and a good defense. If none of their edge rushers step up to become top-tier, you could argue they should hold onto that pick for an edge rusher. However, if we're being honest, the Bills haven't exactly done a great job of drafting in recent years.
Greg Rousseau and A.J. Epenesa are both solid players, but they aren't the tier of edge rusher the Bills were hoping they'd be when they spent early draft picks on them. Kaiir Elam certainly hasn't been what they expected when they took him in the first round, either. Take a page out of the Los Angeles Rams' playbook and use your picks to acquire proven great players.
Will it happen? I highly doubt it. Should the Bills try to make it happen and add another crazy layer to this already never-ending saga? Without question.
