The Buffalo Bills held tight at the NFL trade deadline, which passed at 4 p.m. Tuesday.
Instead, their transactions of the day were all practice squad related: The Bills placed quarterback Jake Fromm and wide receiver Tanner Gentry on the practice squad Covid-19 list Tuesday. They also signed offensive lineman Jacob Capra and wide receiver Austin Proehl to the practice squad.
Ahead of the deadline, coach Sean McDermott reiterated his usual stance: The Bills are always open to options.
“You know us, we're always looking to improve our football team any way we can,” McDermott said Monday. “And I know this time of year in particular, (General Manager) Brandon (Beane) heads that up pretty much without me in terms of the different things he looks at. So we do have conversations, but overall as you know, like I said, we're going to try and find any way we can to improve our football team.”
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The Bills did reportedly call the Broncos about pass rusher Von Miller, according to Peter Schrager of Good Morning Football. The Cowboys also called, but Miller wound up with the Los Angeles Rams, bolstering an already formidable defense.
Buffalo’s offensive line is a bit depleted at the moment: McDermott said Monday that Jon Feliciano is week to week with a calf strain, and Spencer Brown (back) is “moving in the right direction,” but with no set return. Still, the team finished Tuesday with the same O-line with which it started.
Their schedule over the next month provides some advantages, with the hapless Jaguars (1-6) up next, followed by the Jets (2-5), Colts (3-5) and Saints (5-2). Some of those teams will look a little differently after the trade deadline and recent injuries. Most notably on the injury front, Saints quarterback Jameis Winston is done for the season after tearing an ACL. The Bills head to New Orleans for a Thanksgiving night game to round out their November.
The Jets acquired offensive lineman Laurent Duvernay-Tardif from Kansas City for tight end Dan Brown. Duvernay-Tardif has not played this season.
The Bills lead the league in points scored (32.7), points allowed (15.6) and takeaway differential (plus-13). Regardless of what talks Beane might have had with other teams Tuesday in the perpetual search of upgrading his roster, McDermott said that he doesn’t usually feel too much of a need to note the trade deadline with his players.
“I think it's just something that you go through and it's part of the business,” McDermott said. “I think there is an element of respect in terms of we have respect for our players knowing that that's, I'm sure, not easy for those guys. I think they respect, I would hope, our position as well that we're always going to try to do the best thing we can for our team.”
