The Buffalo Bills’ 2024 offseason was in no way devoid of the ‘splash’ moves now typical of the team, but in what was a departure from the recent norm, the headline-stealing maneuvers Buffalo executed throughout the spring saw the team subtract high-profile names as opposed to add them to its roster.
After acquiring players like Stefon Diggs and Von Miller in years past, the Bills departed with several notable players throughout the offseason, trading Diggs to the Houston Texans while also parting ways with stalwarts like Micah Hyde, Jordan Poyer, Tre’Davious White, Mitch Morse, and Gabriel Davis. It was a strategy that signaled a philosophical shift—Buffalo is no longer a team going ‘all-in’ for a Super Bowl each year; it’s instead taking a step back and attempting to re-establish a firmer foundation for sustainable success.
Buffalo hasn’t added a ‘household name’ this offseason because it’s, frankly, not in the financial or competitive position to do so; it wouldn’t behoove the team to mortgage the future when it’s building toward a better future. Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport feels as though the team should re-subscribe to its old strategy and trade a future draft pick to improve its roster immediately; in a recent article breaking down “eight shocking NFL trades that would impact the 2024 NFL playoff race,” the writer suggested that the Bills trade a third-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft to the Los Angeles Chargers in exchange for defensive end Joey Bosa.
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“Now, some members of Bills Mafia may be wincing a bit at the idea of sacrificing a Day 2 pick in 2025 to obtain a star edge-rusher with an injury history,” Davenport wrote. “The Bills went down a similar road in 2022, signing Von Miller to a six-year, $120 million pact that has produced very little in the way of results. But Joey Bosa is significantly younger than Miller was when the team acquired him, and he has participated in voluntary workouts—a good sign that the foot injury that wrecked his 2023 campaign is behind him.
“Getting Bosa’s contract on the books would take some wrangling, but Brandon Beane is as crafty a GM as there is in the NFL. It’s a risky play—but one that could pay off big if the Bills get the Bosa who made three straight Pro Bowls from 2019-2021.”
The suggestion, in a vacuum, is logical; Buffalo could use some help at defensive end, as starting edges Greg Rousseau and A.J. Epenesa—though they’ve shown flashes—haven’t established themselves among the upper echelon of NFL pass rushers. Von Miller is historically dominant (he’s the NFL’s active–all-time-sack leader), but he’s coming off a 2023 campaign in which he tallied just three tackles and zero sacks. Behind the three on the team’s depth chart are veteran Dawuane Smoot, Casey Toohill, and rookie Javon Solomon.
Bosa has been a productive pass-rusher since entering the NFL as the third-overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, notching 67.0 sacks and 82 tackles for loss throughout his eight professional seasons. He’s stellar when available—this evidenced by his four career Pro Bowl nods—but his availability has been a question mark; he’s played only one full season as a professional, recently missing the majority of the 2022 campaign after undergoing early-season groin surgery and another eight games in 2023 due to a foot sprain.
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In a vacuum is where the feasibility of this trade remains; none of the moves made by the Bills this offseason suggest that they’re positioned to trade a day-two draft pick to acquire a soon-to-be-29-year-old who has played 14 games over the past two seasons. Buffalo could use the pass-rushing uptick, but there are too many question marks swirling around Bosa to warrant parting ways with a future third-round pick; the value’s fair, but the Bills simply aren’t the team to pay that price given their current makeup.
Bosa also carries a current cap hit of $26 million, a number that jumps to $36 million next year (though he has no guaranteed salary in the 2025 season); with roughly $10 million in available salary cap space, it would take more than “some wrangling” for Buffalo to fit Bosa on its payroll.
The suggestion would’ve been sound in past years, but given the Bills’ current status as a future-centric team “in transition” (with little immediate financial wiggle room), it’s simply not all that feasible. Buffalo would likely be better off keeping the third-round pick and attempting to land a future contributor than swapping it for an aging pass-rusher with just a few years left in the tank.