By Budd Bailey, Buffalo Sports Page Columnist
No. 24: April 16, 2018 – The Bills trade their first-round draft choice (Vita Vea) and two second-round choices (M.J. Stewart and another pick that was later traded) to Tampa Bay for a first-round draft choice (Josh Allen) and a seventh-round draft choice (Austin Proehl).
It was something of a year of the quarterback in the NFL draft in 2018, with several top prospects coming out of college at the same time. By coincidence, the Bills needed a quarterback. Buffalo had made the playoffs under Tyrod Taylor in 2016, but by the end of the 2017 the team had decided that Taylor was not the player to take the Bills up to the next level.
Buffalo already had some ammunition for a deal in the form of some extra draft picks that had been stockpiled for the occasion. They even traded Cordy Glenn to the Bengals in a deal that moved one of their first-round picks up a few places. Everyone expected the Bills to do something, but no one knew what it what it be.
When the seventh pick in the first round came up, Buffalo struck. The Bills gave up two second-rounders in order take Josh Allen of Wyoming. Allen had been the subject of considerable debate before the draft, but in Buffalo he worked his way into the starting lineup and acquitted himself well. Meanwhile, Vita Vea and M.J. Stewart were occasional starters for the Bucs as rookies. This deal will need time to evaluate fully.
(Follow Budd on Twitter @WDX2BB)
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