Sammy Watkins, former first-round pick of the Buffalo Bills, said the team trading him in 2017 “helped him a lot.”
The comments about the team that drafted him went downhill from there.
As the story goes, the Bills traded two first-round picks for Watkins. He had production with the Bills, including a 1,000-plus yard season in only 13 games played in 2015.
But when Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane came to town, they shocked the league by making big-time player personnel moves. Including in those were trading Watkins to the Rams, something he said left a lasting impact on him and a bit of a sour taste in his mouth toward the Bills.
“It left me scarred by just not trusting coaches in general,” Watkins told reporters via 13WHAM-TV during Super Bowl week in Miami ahead of Sunday’s Chiefs-49ers showdown. “But I think that revived my whole career. At that point in my life I didn’t want to be there and somehow, miraculously, I get traded like the next week and go to another team that’s pretty good and go to the playoffs in my first year with the Rams and now to be in this situation, fighting in the third round last year, one game away from the Super Bowl and to be in the Super Bowl this year… blessings.”
After trading Watkins and cornerback Ronald Darby in separate deals, Beane said the trades were made looking toward the future.
“Really with the draft picks, as we talk about short term and long term, that’s a big part of with planning for the future. We believe that you build through the draft and in order to get us into a situation where we can achieve success and sustain it, building through the draft is the way to go,” Beane said.
Of course, this was just the start of Beane and McDermott deconstructing the roster former general manager Doug Whaley built. Fast forward to today and the only draft pick left on the Bills roster from Whaley’s tenure is Shaq Lawson, and he’s a pending free agent.
Along with Watkins, former Bill LeSean McCoy didn’t have the nicest things to say about the Bills front office at Super Bowl week, either.
However, McCoy did stick around much longer on the Bills roster constructed by McDermott and Beane, one they also touted the importance of building around a strong culture. Having a player that wants to be traded isn’t exactly a strong culture.
Plus, the Bills now have plenty of salary cap space, near $90 million, heading into the offseason. A reason for that was biting the bullet on several dead cap moves in 2017, such as trading Watkins.
Regardless, plenty of time has gone by and with Watkins in the Super Bowl this year and the Bills as postseason visitors two of the past three seasons, both sides can equally say they benefited from the move.
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