Getty Buffalo Bills dead coach Sean McDermott (R) and general manager Brandon Beane (L) may lose their senior director of pro scouting, Malik Boyd.
The Buffalo Bills have some holes to fill on defense and just a bit of salary cap space to do it, leading one insider to suggest Chicago Bears defensive tackle Andrew Billings as a reasonably priced target at the upcoming trade deadline.
The Bills are without defensive tackle DaQuan Jones after he suffered a pectoral tear, with linebacker Matt Milano and cornerback Tre’Davious White joining him on injured reserve. All three are expected to be out for the season, leaving the Bills without three of their top-performing players.
While adding Billings would not start to make up the difference, Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox suggested it could be one of the most attainable moves for a Bills team that has limited resources.
No ‘Home Run’ Moves for Bills
Knox noted that the Bills have only $5.3 million in cap space as the October 31 trade deadline nears, with the team adding some breathing room by restructuring the contract of left tackle Dion Dawkins. The move added $3.9 million in space, leading to speculation that the Bills were planning on making an addition at the deadline.
That led Knox to suggest the team could target Billings, who has a track record of success.
“Billings has a reasonable $1.4 million base salary this season and has been productive for Chicago. He’s recorded 11 tackles and six solo stops while playing only 49 percent of the defensive snaps,” Knox wrote.
While the Bills had one of the top defenses through the early part of the season, they have struggled to defend the run, especially after losing Jones in the October 8 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
“Adding Billings wouldn’t address every need that Buffalo has defensively, but it would help bolster a run defense that has quickly become one of the team’s biggest issues,” Knox wrote.
The Bills could be poised to make other trades, with many insiders identifying second-year cornerback Kaiir Elam as a likely piece to move. Elam has been a healthy scratch for six of the team’s games so far, and on Thursday was benched in favor of veteran Josh Norman, who had just signed with the team that week.
DaQuan Jones Could Return
The Bills have left open the possibility that some of the injured players could come back this year, though head coach Sean McDermott has been careful not to give any definitive time frame for any of them.
LOOK: Bills’ DaQuan Jones wears sling around team facility t.co/68teiyXqZO
As Nick Wojton of USA Today’s Bills Wire noted, Jones was seen at the team facility this week wearing an arm brace, and was with the team for their win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday.
As Wojton also noted in an October 25 article, McDermott was careful to say that Milano would be out “indefinitely” rather than saying definitively that he would be out for the season. Wojton noted that Milano has also been able to return to the team facility to continue his rehab in Buffalo.
“The latest news is that Milano is back in Orchard Park,” Wojton wrote. “McDermott confirmed that the defender had been showing his face around the team facility recently. That likely means he has undergone treatment for the injury as well.
“McDermott said it’s been a welcomed sign to see Milano again–which can also be taken as encouraging news.”
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Bills Advised to Trade for Bears DT With ‘Reasonable’ Salary