You know what’s going to happen, right?
It’s 5:42 EDT on Tuesday, March 10. I’m writing a piece about how the writing was on the wall that the Bills wouldn’t make a big splash early in free agency. And by the time I’m done writing it (or immediately thereafter), they’ll sign Trey Hendrickson for $25 million per year and I’ll look like (more of) an idiot.
But that’s the risk you run when you create content in the middle of the chaos that is the NFL’s free agency tampering period. Look no further than
what’s happened between the Baltimore Ravens and Las Vegas Raiders concerning Maxx Crosby.
The Bills made two significant moves before noon on Monday when the bell rang to open the NFL Stock Exchange: they traded a 2026 second-round pick to the Chicago Bears in exchange for wide receiver DJ Moore and a 2026 fifth-round pick, and they re-signed center Connor McGovern to a four-year, $52 million contract.
McGovern’s deal looks better and better the more interior offensive linemen sign during free agency It’s a contract that’s a whopping $14 million per year less than the contract signed by the other high-level center on the market (Tyler Linderbaum, formerly of the Baltimore Ravens).
Moore at a $25 million average annual value, in combination with the second-round pick the Bills used to get him, hasn’t aged quite as well as other receiver contracts and trades agreed to early this week, but both maneuvers still represent significant moves to shore up two of Buffalo’s top three projected needs headed into the 2026 season (the absent need being edge rusher).
Through the first month-plus of the new Beane/Brady (Beany?) era, president of football operations/general manager Brandon Beane and head coach Joe Brady have attained the alignment they very clearly outlined as being important. They have read from the same script so far, even going as far as to clearly outline the impact that quarterback Josh Allen’s contract has on their ability to build a roster around him with anything pricey (WGR550’s Jeremy White and Joe Dibiase had a rebuttal immediately after).
So they told us how difficult (they thought) it is to build a team when your quarterback is making top dollar, and then made two large moves prior to the opening of the 2026 NFL Free Agency tampering period…
…it feels like the lack of high-end activity after noon on Monday should have been expected. We can have a separate conversation about how much validity the organization’s point about building a team when you have a high paying quarterback is, but we can’t say they didn’t tell us what the playbook would look like ahead of time.
The Bills have made it clear: they have needs and they need good players to fill those needs, but their perception of their cap situation means they need more than just good players; they need surplus value. They need a Jordan Poyer redux: a player they sign to a modest free-agent contract who massively outperforms their deal and provides a level of play that makes the team look brilliant for the signing. (Let’s ignore the fact that the person who made that Jordan Poyer signing is the same guy they just fired.) And those value signings don’t typically happen on the first day of free agency.
The team told us, through actions and words, what the first 24-32 hours of NFL free agency tampering would look like. Whether we like it or not is an entirely different matter, but we probably shouldn’t be surprised.
…and that’s the way the cookie crumbles. I’m Bruce Nolan with Buffalo Rumblings. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @BruceExclusive and look for new episodes of “The Bruce Exclusive” every Thursday on the Rumblings Cast Network — see more in my LinkTree!
