The Bills reshaped their team and 2018 draft with two trades on Friday afternoon. Buffalo unloaded Sammy Watkins to the Rams for E.J. Gaines and a second-round pick. The Bills then shipped Ronald Darby to the Eagles for Jordan Matthews and a third-rounder. Here’s the latest fallout from these deals.
- Eagles GM Howie Roseman said the team didn’t shop Matthews but acknowledged the fourth-year wideout being in trade rumors since March accelerated the actual trade. Roseman, per Zach Berman of Philly.com (on Twitter) said when trade rumors are out there, “people call.” Roseman added Darby — a 2015 second-round pick — having two years left on his rookie contract cemented the deal for the Eagles. “The big factor for us was we weren’t getting a free agent back, too,” Roseman said (via Berman, on Twitter). “We wouldn’t have done the trade if a player had one year left.”
- A perpetual injury risk, Watkins seeing another team take a chance on him in a contract year indicates belief he can stay healthy, ESPN.com’s Stephania Bell tweets. Bell adds a member of the Bills medical staff is now with the Rams. Watkins missed eight games last season and three in 2015. He played in all 16 games as a rookie.
- ESPN.com’s Dan Graziano picked up a vibe while visiting Eagles camp the team was worried about their cornerbacks, and he notes the team is high on 2015 first-round wideout Nelson Agholor as a late-blooming talent. Although, he added the caveat of Agholor’s camp emergence could partially be due to Philly’s substandard corner situation. Graziano adds the Bills were worried about being too young at corner as well. Buffalo has overhauled its cornerback corps this offseason, cutting Nickell Robey-Coleman, letting Stephon Gilmore defect to New England and now trading Darby. The Bills added Shareece Wright, Tre’Davious White, Leonard Johnson and now Gaines. Darby is the latest Bills corner to join the Eagles, following Leodis McKelvin and Ron Brooks. Graziano notes Darby is a higher-ceiling talent than anyone the Eagles previously had.
- Graziano added Jordan Matthews not receiving a contract extension so many of his teammates did recently was a bad sign for his future in Philly. Berman points out (via Twitter) Alshon Jeffery is the receiver the Eagles will try to keep long-term. Jeffery signed a one-year deal with Philadelphia in March. A Matthews re-up may have gotten in the way of that for an Eagles team that’s seen the aforementioned extensions tie up its 2018 cap for the time being. The Eagles as of now are projected to have just $1MM in 2018 space.
- The Rams were the only team to not receive a cornerback in these trades, but Wade Phillips is confident in his group. Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com notes (via Twitter) that means Kayvon Webster as well. The 2013 third-round pick’s a bit of an enigma in being buried behind Denver’s dominant trio for three seasons, but he’s in line to start in Los Angeles now. Robey-Coleman and Webster are now the top two candidates to play opposite Trumaine Johnson.
- LeSean McCoy weighed in on the deal and praised his outgoing teammate while tabbing Matthews — his teammate in Philly for a year — as an inferior receiver to Watkins. “If you compare the two, it’s obvious you can agree who is better,” the Bills running back said, via Mike Rodak of ESPN.com. McCoy added (via Rodak) he can relate to Watkins being traded for a player who he’s “probably better than” from the Eagles-Bills 2015 swap of McCoy and Kiko Alonso.
- Watkins was due a $2.4MM bonus last week, according to OverTheCap’s Jason Fitzgerald (on Twitter). He notes unless there was an unreported adjustment in the contract, the bonus was the Bills’, and not the Rams’, responsibility.
that’s what a teammate wants to hear Lesean. “welcome to buffalo but you’re not as good as the guy we lost”
He was saying Jordan Matthews is better than Sammy Watkins
how did you get that from his comment?
McCoy is from around where I live and he doesn’t have a good rep. He is not what you would call ‘classy’. He needs to grow up.
I honestly think that was one of the reasons they dealt him. His social media activity makes him still seem like a young punk, not a guy that’s been playing pro ball this many years.
I agree I took my family to his “Charity softball game” worst time of the summer they can’t control the weather so I’m not upset that they canceled the game but they still opened up the stadium and said for fans to come, so we went and upon entry there was signs that we had to pay $25-30.00 for a auto or picture and had ZERO things for fans to do if we did not want to meet or greet any players, it was a complete circus again I have no problem donating to charity and I did but to then have to pay inside the stadium after buying tickets and after extra donations lol makes no since was a summer bust
BTW the very next day It was tweeted that Shady blew 200,000 or something like that on gambling idk if he blew it or won it can’t remember now but kind of odd that be posted the day after a charity event
Philly shouldn’t have had to throw a 3rd too.
Philly shouldn’t have had to throw a 3rd rounder in to complete this deal.
Shady is took.
Shady McCoy is a tool.
Yes he is, in the league too many years to still act like the immature punk he is.
Philly shouldn’t have needed to throw a 3rd in to get this deal done.
Wish McCoy was still in Philadelphia.
Well he is in Philly more often than not. Just go to the strip club at lunch time and look for the idiot with his posse.
Drop the Mic nice!