Buffalo Bills ‘enamored by’ Sammy Watkins, trade up possible?
Sammy Watkins participates in a pass catching drill during the 2014 NFL Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
Sammy Watkins is the consensus No. 1 wide receiver in the 2014 NFL Draft, and he is expected to be taken with one of the top five picks. The St. Louis Rams are a top candidate to take him at No. 2 if they can’t trade up, the Cleveland Browns could eye him with the fourth pick, and many people don’t think he’ll make it past the Oakland Raiders, who have the fifth overall pick in the draft. So any team outside the top five with huge interest in Watkins would need to trade up for him, and this is especially true for teams picking after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This year’s WR class is so deep (Mike Evans, Odell Beckham Jr., and others are also big talents) that it doesn’t seem worth it to trade up for Watkins, but he’s such a great prospect that it’s a possibility at least worth discussing internally.
There’s been talk that the Detroit Lions could trade up for Watkins if they like him enough, but that’s mostly been dismissed as a smokescreen (I couldn’t see this materializing either). It looks like you can add the Buffalo Bills to the list of teams (well, it was just one team) with possible interest in trading up for Watkins, as WGR 550’s excellent Joe Buscaglia passes along a report from ESPN’s Todd McShay that the Bills could trade up for Jadeveon Clowney, Greg Robinson, or Watkins.
Buscaglia himself reports, citing a league source, that the Bills “seem to be enamored by” Watkins, so it’s possible that the Bills could trade up for the star wide receiver. They already have Stevie Johnson, traded for Mike Williams, drafted Robert Woods with a high pick last year, and could get a high-impact pass-catcher like Evans, OBJ, or TE Eric Ebron with the ninth overall pick. While trading up for a top prospect- most namely Watkins- is a possibility, I really don’t think it would be a wise move for Doug Whaley, no matter how aggressive he feels.