The Buffalo Bills, one of the two teams along with the Kansas City Chiefs favored to head to the Super Bowl out of the AFC this season, will come off their bye week on a two-game losing streak, after winning their first four straight.
In year that has been described as “Super Bowl or Bust” for the Bills, the team led by reigning NFL MVP Josh Allen finds itself in crisis, falling out of first place in the AFC East behind the suddenly surging New England Patriots. With the trade deadline now less than two weeks away, the Bills will need to make some moves to keep themselves in the hunt for the division title.
In fact, the Bills have dropped all the way down to the fifth seed in the conference. As inconceivable as it may seem, without some significant improvements the Bills are in at least some danger of missing the playoffs altogether.
Former NFL GM Pushes For Safety Trade
On Monday a CBS Sports panel came up with a series of trades that, the panelists said, the Bills “NEED to make ahead of the NFL trade deadline.” But one trade in particular was an attention-grabber, because it would involve the Bills making a deal with their most heated divisional rival, the same team that currently occupies the second seed in the AFC and top spot in the division â the Patriots.
The trade was proposed by former Tennessee Titans general manager Ran Carthon, who was fired from that job in January and has now become a media NFL analyst, but even Carthon admitted that the intra-divisional trade seems unlikely to actually take place.
“I highly doubt it would happen. Let’s let’s just start there,” Carthon â who played nine games at running back for the Indianapolis Colts in 2005 and 2006 â said. But he then went on to outline the trade that would bring New England’s six-year veteran safety Kyle Dugger to Orchard Park.
“I feel like Buffalo needs safety help,” Carthon explained. “You have Demar Hamlin on (injured reserve), and so you’ve been playing with Cole Bishop, you’ve been playing with Taylor Rapp and they are not the type of guys who you call ‘erasers.’”
Dugger Called ‘Eraser’
Since Carthon made his trade proposal, in fact, Rapp appears to have suffered a knee injury that kept him out of practice on Wednesday. That raises the possibility that the Bills will travel to Carolina for Sunday’s game against the Panthers with just one healthy player at the safety position.
“Erasers are guys that can come downhill and take plays away, in terms of being able to fit in run support. But then also having the sideline to sideline range to play over the top in coverage and affect those throwing windows,” Carthon continued.
The “eraser” he has in mind for the Bills is Dugger, a Patriots 2020 second-round draft pick, who was demoted to the second-unit team by new coach Mike Vrabel in training camp, and has yet to capture Vrabel’s attention.
Dugger has played only 44 percent of the Patriots defensive snaps in Vrabel’s debut year an New England head coach, after playing 90 percent under one-and-done coach Jerod Mayo â and 98 percent in 2023, the legendary Bill Belichick’s final season with the Patriots.
Rumors that the Patriots will unload Dugger by the trade deadline have been frequent this season, with the Houston Texans also seen as a potential landing spot, in addition to the Bills.
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