[editor's note, by Brian Galliford] Bumped from the diaries. Excellent points brought up as usual by jri111. End Note

From Saturday's Buffalo News:

There are two major roadblocks to such a thought, however. First, the WR trade market is nearly non-existent. Other teams like Philly have tried unsuccessfully to trade for big names such as Roy Williams and Larry Fitzgerald without much luck, and there is little chance that other teams would have better luck. Second, issue of money. Money, of course is always a concern when it involves the Bills. Any WR Buffalo trades for would most likely require a large contract. That's hard to justify when your own star receiver is entering his contract year without a new deal. So why am I wasting my time with this if it can't be done? Because it can be done.

Of course, it would not be easy. Buffalo would simply have to "make an offer they can't refuse" to teams such as Detroit or Arizona for the likes of Roy Williams or Anquan Boldin. What is that offer? Well, most players are not traded for very high draft picks anymore because of the overly large contracts. The highest draft pick given up is usually a second rounder or some combination of a second round pick and a later or future pick. So to get over this, Buffalo would have to offer a higher pick than normal: how's the 11th overall pick sound? They would also have to pony up the big money for whoever they trade for. That's a lot to give up. Many would say too much. I would say they were wrong.

Buffalo is a a young team with some vets entering the prime of their careers (Evans, McGee, Crowell, etc.). Their window is starting to open. However, in today's NFL, the window is smaller than ever. Can the Bills afford to wait three seasons for a guy like Devin Thomas or Malcolm Kelly to develop into the receiver they need to be successful? With the exception of CB, the defense is in place. A young QB with potential is entering his second year in the league and a star running back is about to be born. They have one star WR locked up for at least two more seasons (considering the franchise tag) and are one or two weapons away on offense from having a contender.

So why not? Trade the 11th pick! We all agree that there is not good value for Buffalo there anyways. Turn it into value. Pay the money. And reap the rewards. If the Bills want to pro actively get better, they may have to look at other ways of doing so at the WR position aside from the draft. The trade market is currently non-existent for wideouts. If they want it, they'll have to create it. They create a market by making a hard and solid offer. Make teams like Detroit or Arizona at least think long and hard about it before they reject it.

The Bills are in a quandary at the 11th pick this year. They have a dire need at WR, but no player worth taking at that pick. The worst thing about this, however, is not the value of the players - that can be argued - it's the overall talent. The top end talent is just not there and taking one of those players would require taking on a lot of question marks. Admittedly, this is a far reaching and fantastical idea. However, sometimes it requires great ideas to achieve great things. We all dream of the Bills achieving great things. They now need a great idea to get them there.