Buffalo Bills set NFL world on fire

Well that happened.

Within the span of two minutes, the Buffalo Bills broke twitter and fan bases in general in the span of two trades.

Okay so that seems…drastic. Watkins, who for once is apparently fully healthy, has been shipped off, but at least the Bills boosted their secondary.

Okay so they didn’t.

On the surface, this isn’t really a great look, and it lays out a few things pretty clearly.

1. Sammy Watkins was absolutely not resigning this off-season.
2. Brandon Beane is making his mark.
3. No one is safe.

The Watkins trade specifically will, and has begun to, disappoint and anger Bills fans. This was our guy. The team traded the world to get this guy, and in the small sample of him actually being on the field, he was a top receiver. And going into this season, the story through training camp was “Is Sammy healthy?”

For someone that has been so hyped up, it is a great disappointment that Bills fans will not get to see him healthy for a whole season.

But for the future, and specifically the immediate future, this trade is set up for success. The Bills now have two first, second, and third round picks in this upcoming draft, and the quarterback class for this draft has been the story since the draft ended, meaning that trading up without completely setting themselves back is an option.

And Jordan Matthews is a competent, solid player. In 14 games last year, he caught 73 passes for 804 yards. Philadelphia is a passing offense, they were 6th in the NFL in attempts last year. Matthews production probably will not be that strong in Buffalo, simply because the focus will be on LeSean McCoy and the running attack. But a receiving group of Matthews, Zay Jones, and Anquan Boldin, backed up by Andre Holmes and Rod Streater is not bad.

I do not know a lot about EJ Gaines, but I do know that Ronald Darby was not great in the Rex Ryan defense. Cornerbacks, for the most part, are hit and miss year by year, almost like a closing pitcher in baseball.

So where does this all leave us? If you’re a Bills fan, today is disappointing and surprising, but it doesn’t exactly make the team worse. In terms of talent, Watkins is one of the best in the league, but if you can only stay on the field for half the season, how much does that really matter? The secondary has essentially the same talent, and it gives the Bills more flexibility to try and move up in the draft to take a quarterback, if that’s what they desire.

And even for this season, the results should be pretty much the same as they would have been. Tyrod Taylor still has weapons to throw the ball to, and although he spent a lot of the off-season training with Watkins, he also knows how to play without him.

The results this season probably would have been the same with or without Watkins on the roster, but the future is set up to be a little bit brighter. Unfortunately, that is a record Bills fans have heard since 1999. We can only hope it works out this time.