Hashtag Sports
  • #Articles
  • #Episodes
  • #Staff
  • Ask Hashtag
What Drives You?

Will The Bills Trade Bradham?

3/28/2015

2 Comments

 
Picture
By: Paul "The Closer" Wanecski
As the Bills approached this offseason, the team was seen as having a wealth of linebacker talent. Preston Brown, Kiko Alonso, Brandon Spikes, Nigel Bradham, Ty Powell, Jerry Hughes and Manny Lawson all would be useful tools to defensive whiz Rex Ryan. Gone is Kiko Alonso via trade, Brandon Spikes could be lost to free agency, and Nigel Bradham could be traded. Yes, you read that correctly. Before anyone loses their minds, here is why you may see Bradham dealt by day two of the draft.
Buffalo has has opened up extension talks with Bradham, as they should. He is a young and productive player entering a contract year. The time to get him on a team-friendly deal is before he ends up destroying the competition in Ryan's system, which very well could happen. Bradham has good speed and can be a punishing tackler when running down hill, but, against more agile players he tends to reach and can take poor angles against players in the backfield. Do the negatives outweigh the positives? Yes, Bradham is a very solid player and the entire league knows it. Since Bradham's salary cap number is $1.6 million, any contract extension the Bills offer should try and leave as much money off the table for 2015 and 2016 as possible. The team is close to the salary cap, having just over $7 million left for 2015 and already uncomfortably near the ceiling for 2016. The Bills will need to ask themselves if Bradham is worth more to the team on it or off it.

The San Francisco 49ers have lost franchise LB Patrick Willis to retirement. His replacement last season, rookie Chris Borland, has also retired. These are just a few of the names in the parade of players leaving the team and they need to do something about it. Bradham is an attractive target for them. Having plenty of room under next year's salary cap, signing Bradham to an extension wouldn't be much of a problem. His versatility would allow the 49ers to do a lot with him.

The Bills would hold onto Bradham until right after they select at 50. Now dealing Bradham would only save them a little less than a million dollars, but, they would get value for a player whom they might lose next offseason. For the 49ers are no strangers to trading draft picks for players. Blaine Gabbert, Colt McCoy, Anquan Boldin and Stevie Johnson (acquired from the Bills at the draft last year) are all examples of that. While the quality of player Bradham is compared to the players just mentioned is significantly higher, the concept is still the same; acquire a player via trade who has proven they can play in the NFL in exchange for a draft selection. While the value the 49ers have traded in the past has been typically a 5th round selection or later, Bradham might be had for a 3rd round pick given the need at the position. Given the average contracts for 3-4 inside linebackers, Bradham's salary would fall somewhere in the $4.5 million range per season, a number the Bills just cannot really afford.

While this may seem like an insane idea, the Bills have invested a lot of money in the defense. At some point, they will need to find a way to save some cap space. Drafting an inside linebacker at the 50th selection (see the Bills Draft Survival Guide) would be a huge red flag that Bradham may be dealt, so keep your eyes open on draft day.
2 Comments
trmTrm
3/28/2015 04:45:01 am

What are you smoking because I want some. People make it sound like you CANT go over the cap; of course you can but you get penalized for it. You think Pegs cares about a fine and MAYBE a draft pick loss if Rex wants to keep Bradham?

Reply
Hashtag Sports
3/28/2015 06:18:02 am

Well, that isn't exactly true. The NFL has to approve every contract, so if one is submitted that would violate the salary cap, then the league will reject it. If a team releases a player and that caused the team to violate the limit of the salary cap, the team has 7 days to make moves to comply with getting back under the cap. Of course, the legal jargon on this is pretty lengthy, so this is truly a "readers digest " version

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Youtube Channel

    Archives

    February 2022
    January 2022
    September 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013

    Categories

    All
    2013 Buffalo Bills
    2014 Buffalo Bills
    2015 Buffalo Bills
    2015 NFL Draft
    2016 Buffalo Bills
    2017 Buffalo Bills
    2018 On The Clock
    2019 Buffalo Bills
    2019 Free Agency
    2019 On The Clock
    2020 Buffalo Bills
    2021 Buffalo Bills
    2022 On The Clock
    3 Step Drop
    Buffalo Bills
    Four Down Territory
    Misc
    MLB
    Monday Quick Slant
    Nba
    Nfl
    Nfl-draft
    Nhl
    On-the-clock-2015
    On-the-clock-2016
    On-the-clock-2017
    On-the-clock-2018
    Pocket-presence
    Quick-slant
    Road-trip
    Salary Cap
    The Good The Bad The Ugly
    Tuesday Cover 2
    Videos

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • #Articles
  • #Episodes
  • #Staff
  • Ask Hashtag