The Buffalo Bills have been pretty quiet this week as the free agent frenzy has taken place around the NFL, but general manager Brandon Beane continues to poke around looking for the right deal.
NFL insider Benjamin Allbright reports that the Bills and the Los Angeles Chargers have made trade offers for disgruntled Philadelphia Eagles tight end Zach Ertz. The holdup seems to be that the Eagles want more than what the Bills or the Chargers are offering.
“Eagles have been trying to get Buffalo and the Chargers to up their offers, so far neither side has budged,” Allbright said.
Earlier this week ESPN’s Dan Graziano said that the Bills were trying to add a tight end in free agency. A day later Michael Silver from NFL Network reported that the Bills and Tampa Bay Buccaneers had offers in to free agent tight end Rob Gronkowksi. The Western New York product apparently considered Buffalo’s offer before deciding to re-sign with Tampa Bay to play with Tom Brady again.
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Eagles general manager Howie Roseman spoke to the media on Thursday and was asked about any progress on the Ertz deal. He reaffirmed his stance that the team is willing to roster Ertz in 2021 if they can’t find a deal they like.
“For us to trade any player, it’s gotta make sense for both sides,” he said. “None of us had the year we wanted to have last year, but that doesn’t define us. We know who he is on and off the field and we value that.”
The Bills have seven draft picks in April’s draft (two 5th round picks and zero picks in the 4th round) that they can try and use in any deal. Depending on what the Eagles want, Beane may have a round in mind that he’s not willing to move out of to add a the 30-year-old tight end.
Ertz is in the final year of his contract and set to earn $8.25 million and comes with a cap hit of $12.47 million, according to contract numbers at Spotrac.com. Ertz reportedly wants a new deal done and the Bills would have to work that out if they were to trade for him. If the Bills want to sign him to an extension they could theoretically add him and make this year’s cap hit reasonable as part of a new multi-year deal.
The Eagles may struggle to get the kind of value they’re looking for in a deal for Ertz because of the low production of their offense last season. Ertz had a career low 36 receptions for 335 yards and just one touchdown.
Buffalo traded veteran tight end Lee Smith on Wednesday to the Atlanta Falcons for a seventh round pick in 2022. That leaves Dawson Knox, Tommy Sweeney, Reggie Gilliam, and Nate Becker as the only tight ends currently on the Bills roster.
The Chargers since have reportedly signed free agent tight end Jared Cook to a one-year deal.
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