It's funny that both LeSean McCoy and Kiko Alonso were rumored to be on the trade block, but somehow the idea of them being traded for each other makes Tuesday's trade between the Buffalo Bills and Philadelphia Eagles quite fascinating.
From the Eagles' perspective, it makes a ton of sense. But from the Bills' angle, the trade requires a little hope and vision.
Oh, sure, there's the immediate return of McCoy and everything he brings. Yes, he fell short of his 2,000-yard rushing goal for 2014 (by almost 700 yards), but he rallied after a slow start, remains relatively young at 27 (turning 27 before training camp) and is the kind of pass-receiving back who can make a bad quarterback average.
And that's exactly what the Bills have right now.
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With no first-round pick and no free-agent quarterbacks that will make anyone excited without beer goggles, the Bills are faced with — having been stood up by (LOL) Josh McCown — finding a temporary bridge QB to compete (still LOLing) with EJ Manuel.
So what's a team to do in that situation? Surround QB1 with whatever complementary talent it can and make chicken salad, you know? Wide receiver — check. Sammy Watkins and Robert Woods are a good 1-2 punch. The offensive line could be good, and you can bet that new offensive coordinator Greg Roman already has implored the team to import Mike Iupati. McCoy, Fred Jackson, Bryce Brown and Anthony Dixon will fit Rex Ryan's ground-and-pound directive (even if McCoy and Jackson might not be best buds).
It's not perfect, but it's not bad. And there's excitement in Buffalo to get a player such as McCoy, who has 26 plays of 20 yards or longer the past two seasons. Isn't McCoy what C.J. Spiller was supposed to be?
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The drawbacks are these:
• The Bills are giving up on Alonso, who could be one of the NFL's best linebackers if his torn ACL hasn't held him back. And he wasn't due to hit free agency for another three years.
• McCoy eats up more than $10 million next season, while Alonso was on the books for less than a million. That limits what the Bills can do in free agency.
• The Bills' top two backs, McCoy and Jackson, have a combined 2,740 carries and 622 receptions in the NFL, which is quite a bit of tread off those tires.
• And, yeah, still no QB.
With this defense and this run game, the Bills are a threat. But they're an also-ran until they find a capable trigger man. You can throw as many screens to McCoy and slants to Watkins as you want; until they find someone who can fire it to the sticks on 3rd and 8 in the fourth quarter against a six-man blitz, forget about it.
McCoy gives them another playmaker, and Roman and Ryan know how to employ a full-house backfield to maximum effectiveness. Now the clock is started on the team finding the right man to hand him the ball. That matters most.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm
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