How about another safety as a potential trade target for the Buffalo Bills at the deadline? This time, let’s venture into the NFC South.
Today I’m highlighting Buccaneers safety Antoine Winfield Jr., a seven-year steady veteran with a Super Bowl ring and nine games of playoff experience who currently plays free safety on a now 2-5 Tampa Bay team.
This article is the sixth in the trade-candidate series I plan to sprinkle onto the site until the actual trade deadline until November 10, which is 15 days
from now, and lands after Week 9.
Past installments in this series:
Derwin James, Brian Thomas Jr. Jessie Bates, Tariq Woolen, Amani Hooker
Age: 28
The Buccaneers made Winfield Jr. a second-round pick in 2020 after an illustrious, ball-magnet career at the University of Minnesota.
He was an instant-acclimation piece on the Tampa Bay defense, as he amassed 94 tackles with six pass breakups, three sacks, and an interception as a rookie. Ever since, Winfield Jr. has been one of the game’s steadiest playmaking safeties. While he only has nine career picks, Winfield Jr. has been a magnet to the football in the NFL by way of tackling. Despite being typically aligned at free safety throughout his career, he averaged 107 tackles per season from 2020 – 2025.
Winfield Jr. was a first-team All-Pro in 2023, and has over 6,000 career snaps on his resume, 620 of which have come in the postseason.
2026 snap splits
Box: 29.4%
Free safety: 58.9%
Slot corner: 7.6%
Defensive line: 3.8%
As per usual, Todd Bowles has asked Winfield Jr. to patrol the deep portion of the field in his defense. That’s where he excelled in college and where he’s flourished in Tampa Bay.
At 5’9” and 203 pounds, he is built similarly to his dad, former Bills and Vikings great Antoine Winfield Sr., and he tackles like him too.
Winfield Jr. has a super-low 8.5% career missed tackle rate, and that figure hasn’t been above 9.5% since his second season in the NFL in 2021. He’s long been one of the best tackling defensive backs in football.
How he’d fit with Bills
Again, we aren’t sure how the Bills feel about youthful depth options at safety right now. If they want a sure thing alongside Cole Bishop — to spell or even replace C.J. Gardner-Johnson — Winfield Jr. would be a sensational add.
Presumably not quite as expensive as Jessie Bates but a clear step above someone like Amani Hooker, Winfield Jr.’s instincts, speed, ball skills, experience, and on-field charisma would work wonders for Buffalo’s back end.
His stabilizing presence at free safety would allow the larger Bishop to align closer to the line of scrimmage more frequently, and Winfield Jr. could conceivably mentor the likes of Jalon Kilgore and Jordan Hancock along the way.
Financial obligation for Bills to trade for him
2026 salary: $19.5M
If the Bills trade for Winfield after Week 9, they’d be on the hook for $9.75Min prorated 2026 base salary.
In 2027, Winfield has a non-guaranteed base salary of $18.1M and a $1.5M roster bonus. He’s set to become a free agent after next season.
Projected cost to acquire
Using Syndicate32.com’s trade machine, and adding the “fire sale” stipulation to the assessment, the projected cost to trade for Winfield Jr. is a mid Round 2 pick in 2027.
That feels about right for Winfield Jr.. He’s still reasonably young and has long been one of the game’s best, all-around free safeties who makes plenty of plays in coverage and against the run.
Should the Bills trade for Antoine Winfield Jr.?
Winfield is probably still a player who is worth and deserves the contract under which he’s currently playing. But because there is no guaranteed money left on his current Buccaneers deal, if a trade to Buffalo were to occur, it feels like the classic scenario in which the trading team would agree to a new deal with the acquired player that lowers his current-year cap hit in exchange for future financial security for the player via guaranteed dollars.
In essence, the Bills likely wouldn’t want to pay that prorated salary of nearly $10M for Winfield Jr. in 2026. They don’t really have the money for it either, although accounting gymnastics are always an option.
In the process of all this, Buffalo could convert Winfield’s 2026 salary to a signing bonus, thereby spreading out the vast majority of it over the next few seasons while giving him guaranteed money into 2028 or beyond.
Safeties can play high level into their early 30s, and Winfield Jr. won’t be 30 until right before the 2028 season begins.
I’m not sure if the Bills would want to trade second-round picks in consecutive drafts for established veterans in their late 20s, but Winfield Jr. is exactly the type of safety this defense could use, someone whose presence could have an enormously positive ripple effect on the rest of the back seven in Buffalo.
This would be viewed as the type of expensive “all-in” move many Bills fans have been wanting the team to make for a while now.
