Opposition impact
There’s two distinct ways that the Bills could see other teams impact their final roster situation by Saturday’s deadline. First, the Beane special, one we’ve already seen this week. On Monday, the Bills traded for linebacker Andre Smith, who, if on the team’s final roster, will provide an impact as a special teamer. There’s a chance that the Bills are involved in another similar trade before the deadline.
But the opposite has been the case more often in recent seasons.
Acquiring depth at positions via free agency or the draft during the offseason has not only helped the Bills generate competition during training camp, it’s also helped the club take late-round picks off of other teams rosters at this time of the year.
In acquiring such picks, only have those late rounders sometimes found ways to stick around on Buffalo’s roster in recent memory, those have been packaged to give the Bills more comfort in trading up during the draft process. Coming to mind are guys like Wyatt Teller and Russell Bodine, who were traded before cut-down day. Maybe lineman Evan Boehm, Brian Winters or a receiver like Robert Foster could fetch a pick in the next few hours since they’re squarely on the roster bubble?
But that’s not the only way other teams could affect the Bills. Players who are straight-up cut by other NFL teams could be on Buffalo’s radar. The team’s starting punter, Corey Bojorquez, was cut by the Patriots and in a surprise move at the time, the Bills signed him in 2018. He’s still with Buffalo as their starting punter to this day.
This is the Robert Foster we saw at the end of last season. #Bills pic.twitter.com/ybcNjgIDKB
— Bradley Gelber (@BradleyGelber) August 9, 2019