Opinion: Bills’ trade of DE Boogie Basham to Giants disappointing loss

On Tuesday morning as all NFL teams continued making necessary cuts to trim rosters down to 53 players, the Buffalo Bills worked the trade block instead — sending defensive end Carlos “Boogie” Basham to the New York Giants in exchange for a late-round pick swap in 2025, per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero. This is the latest move in the newfound BUF-to-NYG pipeline since general manager Joe Schoen joined their organization.

It’s difficult not feeling like general manager Brandon Beane and the Bills lost this trade. The team gives up defensive line depth that they used a second-round pick on back in 2021 — for an underwhelming swap of late-round draft picks.

With the departure of Basham, the Bills will save over $1.1 million in cap space but must eat $362,000 in dead cap as a result. Basham struggled to cement himself in the rotation, appearing in just 23 games for Buffalo and recording 4.5 sacks across two seasons. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported that given how deep and talented Buffalo’s defensive line room is at the moment, both Basham and defensive end A.J. Epenesa generated some trade interest this offseason. It seems as though Epenesa won that battle.

His first two seasons with the Bills were disappointing, but the trade return is going to leave a sour taste in many Bills fans’ mouths. This wasn’t a wizard-like offseason move that we are used to from general manager Brandon Beane but time will tell if Epenesa’s impact is noticeable enough and we don’t get another Isaiah Hodgins situation.