Buffalo Bills attempted to trade up for RB Carlos Hyde

The Buffalo Bills are being rather forward about the fact that they attempted to trade back into the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft to select Ohio State running back Carlos Hyde. They admitted as much in a BuffaloBills.com video discussing their draft weekend trades, though the report of their interest in Hyde had existed since last Friday (and had long been assumed given his presence on a pre-draft visit in April).

FYI If Kouandjio was off the board the Bills would have took running back Carlos Hyde with their second-round pick.

— Lauren Brill (@LaurenBrill4) May 10, 2014

In the BuffaloBills.com video, which you should watch in full here, the Bills began working the phones when the Tennessee Titans took the first running back, Bishop Sankey of Washington, at No. 54 overall on Friday evening.

"Because there hadn’t been one taken up until that point, we know a lot of times in drafts, especially at a position, if it hasn’t gone, once one goes, everybody starts saying ‘Well you know what, we might as well take it if we need one,’" GM Doug Whaley told Chris Brown of the team's official site.

Jim Monos, Director of Player Personnel, added: "We knew we wanted to get up, back into the second round. We had the ammunition to do it. We kind of looked at each other and said ‘Hey, let’s make some calls, see if we can get back in this.’"

The Cincinnati Bengals took LSU runner Jeremy Hill, another Bills pre-draft visitor, at No. 55 overall. As the Bills were continuing to attempt to trade, the San Francisco 49ers were executing - first on a trade down from No. 56 overall (Denver moved up to take wideout Cody Latimer), then on a trade up from No. 63 overall, where at No. 57 they took Hyde.

"We had a limit of what we were going to offer, and to see if they would take it," Whaley said. "Unfortunately for us, everyone wanted to stay and take their pick."

Monos admitted, as well, that the 49ers were the team that ended up taking the player that Buffalo was targeting, Hyde.

The 49ers took Ohio State RB Carlos Hyde, a pre-draft visitor to Buffalo, and the running back run was over.

"They got our guy," said Monos. "You win some, you lose some."

The next day, the Bills sent a 2015 fourth-round pick to the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for 23-year-old, third-year running back Bryce Brown, a talented former seventh-round pick out of Kansas State.