Buffalo, NY- The Buffalo Bills have gotten a huge pick-up after a three way trade that involved the Los Angeles Rams and the Philadelphia Eagles. After an upbeat season that was supposed to be filled with a health Sammy Watkins, Watkins have been traded to the Rams for Jordan Matthews and E.J. Gaines. The Eagles get a CB in Ronald Darby.
Even though the trade was unexpected, the Bills were optimistic about the player that they were getting with Matthews. Bills’ head coach Sean McDermott talked about the trade and how it improved their team. “Well, I know this. I know we’ve got – what we’re looking at is still a quality group of receivers when you talk about bringing in a guy like Jordan Matthews. You add him to who’s already here with Anquan [Boldin], who was not even on the field last night and Zay [Jones] and then the rest of the guys that you saw last night. I know where you’re going with that and we’re bringing in a corner with this deal that has started games – started a number of games. He’s going to blend right in and compete and earn his right to be on this football team and start. I think we’re moving in the right direction.”
Honesty and communication is what McDermott is installing in his organization and he touched on that in the press conference. “I’ll take it a step further and how do you sell it to the entire team: My stance with our football team and the leaders of our football team, as you mentioned Tyrod [Taylor] being one of them, is to be honest and up front with these guys and they know that we’re going to do everything possible and make every decision that’s in the best interest of this football team short and long term. That’s my responsibility. I believe in clear and concise communication and developing trust and that’s what I hope has developed over the course of the first six months, six and a half months on the job and we’re going to continue to work our tails off to put this football team and this organization in a position to win and sustain success.”
However with Matthews being slightly injured, there has been speculation that he may miss a couple of games, but nothing is certain at this time. If Matthews can stay healthy and learn the Bills’ offense, the Bills could go deep in the post season. They have veteran wide receivers in Anquan Boldin and Matthews, which could help out Tyrod Taylor.
Even though this is good news for the Bills, the Bills have to improve with making adjustments in their blitzing packages. At times the Bills have got burned on blitzing, because one of their players are out of place or just can not get to the QB in time. Another thing to look out for is the Bills improving their discipline. Last week in their first preseason, the Bills had 10 penalties that cost them over 110 yards. They need to get control of that aspect or they will find themselves ranked 1st in penalties.
The Bills knows what they have to do to prepare for the season, but the players that they just picked up has kept the Bills optimistic about this year. It will be interesting to see how Boldin and Matthews will contributed to the offense.
