BLEAV in Bills: The Bills suddenly have all kinds of questions to answer
Sal Maiorana and Adam Benigni discuss the issues that are confronting the Bills during their two-game losing streak.
ATLANTA- The NFL trade deadline is Tuesday, Nov. 4, but there have already been a handful of interesting deals made, and it is expected that more are on the way as some teams – perhaps the suddenly sagging Buffalo Bills – would like to address areas of concern immediately rather than wait another three weeks.
The Bills have two very obvious positions to bolster and that’s cornerback and wide receiver, but unless they are going to go scorched earth and make a massive trade involving big names, it’s tough to see how the Bills can add anyone who would actually make a difference given their lack of salary cap space.
It’s difficult for salary cap-strained teams to make game-changing additions at the deadline because the caliber of player needed is going to be costly. The Bills have only around $2.5 million available, second-fewest ahead of only the Giants, so general manager Brandon Beane – whose roster construction of the 2025 team is coming under big-time fire – will have to be willing to move a very good player from his roster to acquire another very good player.
At cornerback, Tre’Davious White looks like a 30-year-old player with some ugly leg injury history that has weakened his once supreme set of skills. Man coverage is asking too much of White, especially when he’s going against the likes of Stefon Diggs last week against New England, or Atlanta’s Drake London Monday night.
But even when the Bills go to zone – which is their primary scheme – White has struggled to maintain his responsibilities, and what’s not helping him is that the other starting corners, Christian Benford and Taron Johnson, have not played near their expected level. In the last two weeks, Diggs and London have combined for 20 catches for 304 yards.
However, the Bills don’t have a choice but to play White, and he actually played the most snaps of anyone on defense in the 24-14 loss to Atlanta because behind him is a vacuum. Rookie first-round pick Maxwell Hairston is still on injured reserve and rookie sixth-round pick Dorian Strong just joined him, so the only other corners the Bills have on the 53-man roster are Ja’Marcus Ingram and Brandon Codrington, and that’s simply not tenable.
As for wide receiver, this is a team that preaches “everybody eats” and lately, they’ve gone into starvation mode. Buffalo’s wide receiver group is one of the most average, or worse, among any of the so-called Super Bowl contenders. They have no one who can get open in the intermediate range, let alone deep range.
They have a bunch of guys who catch five-yard passes and then hope to grab some yards after catch, yet the only one adept at doing that is Khalil Shakir, no doubt a nice player to have, but not someone any defensive coordinator is too particularly worried about. Josh Allen will never say it, but he’s desperate for a true downfield threat and field stretcher.
Diggs was a superstar for four seasons in Buffalo, but he did most of his damage in the short and intermediate range thanks to precise route running and great hands. The Bills’ passing game – which had been among the league’s best with Allen at the controls – has nonetheless been lacking a true burner since 2020, John Brown’s injury-shortened final season with the team.
Buffalo Bills trade targets: Cornerbacks
This is like throwing darts at a board, but here are a few players who have been rumored to be on the trading block who the Bills could make a play for, with the caveat that these are players who really don’t move the needle very much:
CB Alontae Taylor, Saints
The 26-year-old Taylor is reportedly keeping lines of communication open with the Saints on a possible contract extension, but the Saints are now 1-5 after their loss to New England Sunday and are going nowhere in 2025. They could look to move Taylor and acquire an asset, then re-sign Taylor as a free agent in the offseason if there’s continued interest on both sides.
Taylor has played more snaps in the slot than he has on the outside, but the fact that he can do both should be interesting for the Bills. The Bills would look to play Taylor on the outside, but he would provide nice insurance in the slot for Johnson who has been injury prone throughout his career and the dropoff in the slot to Cam Lewis is precipitous.
He has not had a great season, 22 completions in 32 targets for 200 yards and three TDs, 77 of those yards yielded on four Bills receptions on Sept. 28. The Bills would be responsible for about $2 million in base salary for Taylor.
CB Tariq Woolen, Seahawks
The 2022 fifth-round pick of Seattle made a scintillating NFL debut as he picked off six passes in his rookie season which led the league and earned him an invite to the Pro Bowl and a third-place finish in the defensive rookie of the year balloting. Since then his level of play has not matched up to the point where he was inactive Sunday in the Seahawks’ victory over the Jaguars.
Josh Jobe and Shaquill Griffin started that game, and with slot CB Devon Witherspoon ready to return to action, Woolen is going to be squeezed out of playing time. Like Taylor, he’s in the last year of his rookie contract and will be a free agent in 2026, so the Seahawks may be looking to get a low-round draft pick for him.
At 26 years old and 6-foot-4, 210 pounds, he is an unusually big corner and he would bring some much-needed youth and size to the CB2 spot currently manned by White. But this year he has allowed 13 completions on 18 targets for 183 yards and a TD, certainly not great. The cost for Woolen is in the $3 million range for the rest of the season, so the Bills would have to do some cap massaging to fit him in.
CB Eric Stokes, Raiders
Las Vegas is scuffling along at 2-4 after its victory over the woeful Titans Sunday, and Stokes has started every game and been one the Raiders’ most consistent defenders which makes a trade a bit unlikely.
Stokes was the Packers’ first-round pick in 2021, No. 29 overall, but injuries derailed him in Green Bay and the team decided not to exercise the fifth-year option so he became a free agent and signed one-year, $1.5 million prove-it with the Raiders. Thus, the cost to acquire Stokes would be manageable for the Bills at less than $1 million.
He’s 6-1 and weighs 193 pounds, and this year he has allowed nine catches on 17 targets for 108 yards and no TDs. The Raiders have rookie third-round pick Darien Porter waiting in the wings to become a starter, but because their other starting CB, Kyu Blu Kelly, has played poorly, Porter might eventually move into his spot so maybe the Raiders wouldn’t entertain offers.
Buffalo Bills trade targets: Wide receivers
WR Rashid Shaheed, Saints
Shaheed, who went undrafted in 2022, signed with the Saints and has been there ever since, would bring to the Bills’ wide receiver group the one thing it severely lacks: Deep speed. He would immediately become the fastest receiver on the team and perhaps someone who could stretch the field a little for Josh Allen which, while also providing big-play ability, could also open things in the intermediate range.
His teammate, Chris Olave, is another rumored trade candidate, but he would cost about $2 million more for the rest of this season, plus he’s similar in skill set to what the Bills already have in players like Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman and Joshua Palmer, though he’s probably than all three.
However, while Shaheed is a free agent next year, Olave has one year remaining on his contract and will carry a cap hit of $15.5 million which doesn’t seem palatable for the Bills.
WR Jakobi Meyers, Raiders
Here’s a classic case of a guy who might become available, but is he really worth it? This season for a bad Raiders team he has 29 catches on 43 targets for 329 yards, numbers which would lead the Bills in all categories. But his career yards per catch average is a mundane 11.7.
This year he’s done more work from the slot than he has out wide, and he’s never been a true speed threat. He’s basically another player like Palmer and he’s going to cost more than $5 million this season, so how are the Bills fitting him into the salary structure without offloading a like contract?
Other Buffalo Bills roster options
WR Gabe Davis, Bills practice squad
Don’t laugh. Davis was signed to the practice squad even though he was still rehabbing an offseason knee surgery. It seems like the Bills did that with the idea of activating him once he’s ready to go because he’s a receiver who had some success with Allen and Buffalo, is a player they have always loved, and they know he’ll work hard when the ball isn’t coming his way.
In other words, he’s like the rest of the receivers on the team except he has some history with the Bills, and has occasionally made some big plays, several of those in that infamous 13 seconds game where he set an NFL postseason record with four TDs against the Chiefs.
In his four seasons with the Bills, Davis averaged 16.7 yards per reception and caught 27 TD passes. The now injured Palmer is averaging 16.7 yards, but it’s on just 14 catches, one of which was a 45-yarder Monday. Among the receivers who get the lion’s share of the snaps, Shakir is 10.7 per catch, Coleman 9.9.
CB Stephone Gilmore, free agent
This is highly unlikely as Gilmore is 35 years old and has not been with a team this season so his level of readiness should the Bills bring him in is unknown. Gilmore was Buffalo’s first-round draft pick in 2012 but left after five seasons and has since played for the Patriots, Panthers, Colts, Cowboys and Vikings.
His name has been brought up because last year for Minnesota he started 15 games including the Vikings’ playoff loss to the Rams and he played adequately. But the thing is, would he actually be an upgrade over White who is four years younger? The answer is probably no.
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, he has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at [email protected], and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.
