Over the past few days there have been numerous rumors from sources that the Buffalo Bills are throwing away the season and listening to trade offers for star running back LeSean McCoy. Head coach Sean McDermott has reiterated multiple times that this team is not tanking for the upcoming season.
Benjamin Albright, a radio host in Denver, threw out a tweet that the Bills were “entertaining offers” for McCoy. It seemed more like speculation than a report, but several folks took it and ran with it in the blogosphere.
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio voraciously shot down Albright’s claim. Florio says multiple sources around the NFL have not and will not confirm these reports.
“As one source with knowledge of the situation explained it to PFT, the Bills haven’t entertained traded offers for McCoy, the Bills currently aren’t entertaining offers for McCoy, and the Bills won’t be entertaining trade offers for McCoy.”
For his part, Allbright doubled down late Tuesday saying the Bills were in “CYA” mode. He joined Bills Fanatics for a quick podcast call, too, to clarify the type of chatter that is going on.
“The Bills are not ‘shopping McCoy.’ People are calling about him because they understand that there’s kind of a fire sale going on there - which I don’t think is exactly true,” Allbright said. “They understand that there are players to be had and teams that are on the cusp of competitive or the cusp of maybe a Super Bowl and see if they can acquire a star player for picks. There have been calls about LeSean McCoy and they weren’t flat-out told ‘no.’”
Allbright mentioned the PFT report and also reiterated that Buffalo could still be blown away with an offer.
The Bills probably won’t trade McCoy unless an offer is made that even fans would agree with. If the Bills were offered something more than a first-round pick or an immediate number one corner for McCoy it would be hard to say no. Florio also explains the cap situation if the Bills were to trade McCoy, and it’s not exactly that helpful to move him.
“A trade would create only $1 million in net cap space for the Bills, and it would save $6.075 million in cash. But it also would leave the Bills without one of their best players, less than two weeks after trading receiver Sammy Watkins.”
Money-wise, a trade isn’t helpful. Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott won’t be signing any big name free agents but they will focus on building a roster with their six picks in the first three rounds of the 2018 NFL draft.
All-in-all, expect McCoy to remain a Bill unless the Bills’ brass is blown out of the water with a trade deal on the table.