Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott had a very busy offseason after their season ended in January. The Buffalo Bills team turned around in 2017 before the season kicked off and they will look even more different in 2018. They made plenty of changes to their roster and took steps forward for another possible playoff run. Today, we look at the top five moves by the Bills in this offseason.
5.) Fire Rick Dennison, Bring in Brian Daboll
Rick Dennison went one-and-done with the Bills as their offensive coordinator. The offense overall was in the bottom five statistically and it led to a termination of Dennison. The Bills brought in Brian Daboll from the University of Alabama to take over the offense. The offense has a newly complete look. New quarterback, new offensive line, etc. The offense has nowhere to go but up based off of last season.
4.) Beef Up The Defense Line
Star Lotulelei reunites with McDermott in Buffalo after the two worked with each other down in Carolina. He signed a 5 year/$50 million deal and upgrades the running game that was atrocious last season.
That’s not it, though. The team was able to snag pass rusher Trent Murphy from the Washington Redskins. Murphy is coming off a torn ACL injury as well as suspension for violating the NFL’s policy on performance enhancing drugs and served four games without pay last season. In 2016, Murphy recorded nine sacks for the Redskins and the Bills in total last season racked up 27 total sacks, in which Jerry Hughes and Shaq Lawson led the defense in that category with four each.
The team brought back Kyle Williams and may have found his successor in Harrison Phillips through the draft.
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3.) Add To The QB Mix with AJ McCarron
The Bills head into the season for the first time with a new QB in three seasons. AJ McCarron could become the teams’ new starter ahead of Nathan Peterman and Josh Allen. After serving as a backup in Cincinnati, McCarron has the opportunity to earn his way to starter status and show Bills fans what he can do as either a bridge quarterback or possibly new franchise guy, even ahead of Allen.
2.) Drafting Tremaine Edmunds
A special player who has a high ceiling and has a long career ahead of him. Edmunds was projected to be a top ten draft prospect and somehow fell to #16 and that’s when the Bills made the call to trade with the Baltimore Ravens and grab Edmunds. At 20 years old, Edmunds will look to lead a McDermott defense and shows much promise for the future for the Bills.
1.) Trade Tyrod Taylor and Cordy Glenn
Taylor and Glenn saw themselves near the end of the tunnel in Buffalo after this past season.
After too much inconsistency with the contract he was provided by the organization, the Bills took matter into their own hands and traded Taylor and his contract to the Cleveland Browns for a draft pick. It was hinted that the team was looking to move on from Taylor in hopes of finding their franchise guy.
With the case for Glenn, it came down to injuries and not being on the field to produce. Dion Dawkins established himself as the teams’ left tackle of the future after serving as a protective lineman in both the pass and rush. Dawkins is on a rookie deal and will look to keep playing like an experienced franchise tackle.
With Dawkins performing at a high level, the team traded Glenn to the Bengals while swapping first round picks that helped the Bills land their hopeful future franchise guy in Josh Allen.
Brandon Ray is a Managing Editor for Full Press Coverage and covers the NFL and the Buffalo Bills. Follow him on Twitter at @brandon_ray79 and @FPC_Bills for Bills coverage.
