The #Bills did have trade conversations with Carolina regarding Christian McCaffrey.
Buy Saints TicketsThey did not with New Orleans about Alvin Kamara.
Here's GM Brandon Beane explaining the trade process in general, with specifics regarding both of those situations. pic.twitter.com/7NEFSetaqm
— Jon Scott (@JonScottTV) November 2, 2022
Props to Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane on delivering a detailed, comprehensive response to a good question. Beane was asked about his team’s actions (and inactions) at this year’s NFL trade deadline, having ultimately traded for Indianapolis Colts running back Nyheim Hines after his team was linked to a couple of different running backs.
That group included New Orleans Saints superstar Alvin Kamara, who FOX Sports’ Jay Glazer reported was the subject of an inquiry from Buffalo. That conversation went nowhere, of course, and Kamara later scored three touchdowns in New Orleans’ much-needed win over the Las Vegas Raiders. Still, it was nice of Beane to clarify that front when discussing his team’s approach to trades with reporters this week.
“That leads me to Alvin Kamara,” Beane said Wednesday. “That was the scouts looking into — they put something out, maybe Philly was in it or something like that, I can’t remember the team — we checked into it and never got an answer whether he was available or not. And Sunday it’s reporting on one of the shows that we were ‘rebuffed.’ I never spoke to their GM. That’s just how the process works.”
So if we’re translating Beane here: someone in Buffalo’s front office (specifically the pro personnel scouting department) checked in on Kamara’s availability after hearing a rumor that other teams were calling after him, didn’t get a response, and that was reported by Glazer as the Saints having rebuffed a Bills offer for Kamara. There’s a bit of extrapolating going on there, but as Beane said, this never got to a stage where he and Loomis were negotiating a deal. He says the two general managers never spoke at all.
Beane specified that he did speak with Carolina Panthers general manager Scott Fitterer about Christian McCaffrey, but he didn’t make an offer for a trade. So those trade talks advanced further than any conservations with New Orleans, even if they still didn’t result in a deal. What’s important here is that the Saints were not actively shopping Kamara to other teams. They weren’t even taking phone calls. As we’ve discussed before, Kamara is a foundational player in their locker room.
Now McCaffrey is winning weekly awards with the San Francisco 49ers, Carolina is struggling to tank their season against division rivals playing bad football, Himes is getting fitted for his new jersey and helmet in Buffalo, and Kamara is taking charge of the Saints as a team leader while ruling out any interest in playing anywhere else. The trade deadline has passed by. Now we can focus on the players actually suiting up on Sundays (well, in the Saints’ case this week, on Monday).
