Kaiir Elam traded to Cowboys

[Augie]

7 minutes ago, Don Otreply said:

If you draft a player that has been a flop for three seasons, and then actually get something of value in a trade, it is a positive outcome, all teams go through this sort of thing every so often, so yes it is a win in this regard, 

 

If nothing else we cleared some cap space and moved up about a round late in the draft. Take your lumps and move on. 

[Bill from NYC]

37 minutes ago, Einstein said:

2022 NFL Draft:

Pick 21: 1st Team All-Pro CB Trent McDuffie
Pick 22: Respectable LB - Quay Walker
Pick 23: Kaiir Elam
Pick 24: 2nd Team All-Pro OT Tyler Smith
Pick 25: Two-time Pro-Bowl C Tyler Lindenbaum

It takes skill to screw this up so badly.

George Karlaftis was also there, but who needs Pro Bowl blockers and fine pass rushers when you have a chance to trade UP for a corner?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Karlaftis

[The Wiz]

1 hour ago, Chicken Boo said:

 

All I said was that giving Beane credit for getting a 5th rounder out of his 1st round pick was nothing to celebrate.

 

I'm not wrong.  

 

Ha!

 

You guys are trying to make this move seem like some kind of win.  It's weird.  

And you're making it sound like we spent an entire draft for one player.  It's weird.

[eball]

The sadsacks who want to cling to criticism of Beane for picking Elam crack me up.  We will never know all of the inside details as to why it didn’t work out, but Beane didn’t have to pay him a 2nd contract and managed to get a 5th round pick for someone who was not a part of the present or future of this franchise.  That’s what good GMs do; they don’t cling to their mistakes and they make the best out of the situation they’re in.

 

Buffalo Bills fans who are “unhappy” with Beane can go find another franchise to root for, because they don’t deserve this one.

 

[3rdand12]

59 minutes ago, eball said:

The sadsacks who want to cling to criticism of Beane for picking Elam crack me up.  We will never know all of the inside details as to why it didn’t work out, but Beane didn’t have to pay him a 2nd contract and managed to get a 5th round pick for someone who was not a part of the present or future of this franchise.  That’s what good GMs do; they don’t cling to their mistakes and they make the best out of the situation they’re in.

 

Buffalo Bills fans who are “unhappy” with Beane can go find another franchise to root for, because they don’t deserve this one.

 

Harsh , Dude
 yea I really wonder how that went wrong since they were seemingly in agreement to go get him.

And defensive player that fits McD expertise . This one really intrigues me as to what we do not know.

Wish him well

[HOUSE]

This is why Jerry Jones is the GM. A keen judge of talent that no other GM can see.

[Gunsgoodtime]

Amazing, basically a wash trade 5th/7th for high 6th, some cap savings of 2.6m. Nice 1st round pick wasted Beane, along with the many other 1-3 round picks.  Its unbelievable at this point how you can miss in the draft and Fa so bad when you have JA17 as your qb.  Shameful, far more embarrassing than the 4 straight Superbowl losses.  At least we made it, without the best qb this team has ever seen

[eball]

46 minutes ago, Gunsgoodtime said:

Amazing, basically a wash trade 5th/7th for high 6th, some cap savings of 2.6m. Nice 1st round pick wasted Beane, along with the many other 1-3 round picks.  Its unbelievable at this point how you can miss in the draft and Fa so bad when you have JA17 as your qb.  Shameful, far more embarrassing than the 4 straight Superbowl losses.  At least we made it, without the best qb this team has ever seen

Don’t let the door hit ya on your way out!

 

[Bob Chandler's Hands]

50 minutes ago, Gunsgoodtime said:

Amazing, basically a wash trade 5th/7th for high 6th, some cap savings of 2.6m. Nice 1st round pick wasted Beane, along with the many other 1-3 round picks.  Its unbelievable at this point how you can miss in the draft and Fa so bad when you have JA17 as your qb.  Shameful, far more embarrassing than the 4 straight Superbowl losses.  At least we made it, without the best qb this team has ever seen

[Richard Noggin]

Some people just whine and complain and fixate while pretending it's the fault of someone else's failings. Frustrating to encounter online and in real life.

 

I'll bet most of us have attended a sporting event seated in front of (or within direct earshot of) a loud, angry whiner. Like every unsuccessful play is so obviously the wrong call, and the fan doesn't realize or care that the people around them might prefer to enjoy the ups and downs of a live competition. Just like here, during the offseason, many of us enjoy discussing and analyzing and debating and whatnot, but we know that we don't always know how things will turn out. And either way, we know that polemic crusades are a nuisance. 

 

It's probably right that Beane, early in the draft a couple times, has seemingly panicked or at least gotten impatient in response to unexpected runs on positions or specific players. We all know the early misses and late hits. But other GMs, even the best, also hit and miss with similar frequency. Hopefully Beane can take the longer view and let the draft come to him a little more organically. 

[ShakAttack]

Considering we didn't sign a CB and  don't have a CB2 on the roster right now, I actually would have preferred keeping Elam and preparing him all off-season to be the starting corner opposite Benford instead of swapping a 5th and 6th round pick to get rid of him.

 

This opinion may change if we sign a halfway decent CB with starting experience between now and the draft, but if we don't, does this force our hand into using our first round pick on a DB? Kind of looks like it right now. If that happens, they'd better get it right this time (and have a concrete backup plan if someone jumps in front of us and steals our target(s)).

 

On a side note, I am still intrigued by Daequan Hardy. This dude is athletic and flashed in the pre-season last year. If Benford could develop into the player he has become, I wonder if Hardy has a shot as well? This would depend on whether the Bills are willing to give him a fair shot at competing for the job, of course.

 

Remember a few years ago when we didn't have a starting LB after losing Edmunds? And everyone was CERTAIN that we were going to either sign his replacement in FA or draft him in the first couple of rounds. When neither of these things happened, nobody gave Terrell Bernard a chance. Nobody could believe the Bills were seriously planning to start this guy. But that's what happened, and it worked out.

 

I realize Bernard was a 3rd and Hardy was a 6th (like Benford) but once again, the dude looked GOOD as a rookie and some of us believed he should make the final 53 man roster.

 

Just makes me wonder...

[GunnerBill]

When I actually see the value it is a next year 7th and moving up literally 4 spots this year from 1st pick in round 6 into the comp pick zone of round 5. 

 

That is more what I thought Kaiir's value was. 

16 hours ago, HappyDays said:

 

I've seen a few people say this but it's really not true. We moved up 34 spots on day three. That isn't just a token cost, it's an entire round of picks we're getting ahead of. It could be the difference between still having draftable players on our board or not.

 

It's not though. We move from the Browns pick (1st pick of round 6) into the round 5 comp zone for Dallas's comp pick. It is four spots.

[GunnerBill]

12 hours ago, Einstein said:

2022 NFL Draft:

Pick 21: 1st Team All-Pro CB Trent McDuffie
Pick 22: Respectable LB - Quay Walker
Pick 23: Kaiir Elam
Pick 24: 2nd Team All-Pro OT Tyler Smith
Pick 25: Two-time Pro-Bowl C Tyler Lindenbaum

It takes skill to screw this up so badly.

 

Quay Walker is respectable in that he has started a lot of games. I fully expect Green Bay not to pick up his 5th year option though. He has been a tick better than replacement level. Sure that is still better than Elam but if you spend a 1st on an off ball linebacker that guy better be a star or else that's a bad allocation of assets. Similar when you take a center tbh, but as ever it seems.... the Ravens made the right gamble. 

 

My bigger complaint was always I had 7 corners that year with 1st or 2nd round grades (Elam was #7). Sauce, Stingley and McDuffie had gone. That meant four were left. Let's leave out Andrew Booth for now because the story at the time was the medicals were horrific and he has barely been healthy and not looked healthy even when he has. So maybe it was down to 6 because the Bills are pretty risk averse on that stuff he was likely off the board. That means even if the Bills were adament it had to be corner there were three guys left: in order of my ranking - Kyler Gordon; Roger McCreary; Kaiir Elam. Gordon has developed into a high end corner. McCreary (who I never saw as a scheme fit for the Bills... but then likewise Elam) started as an outside corner for a year and a half in Tennessee where he was average and then was moved inside and is a good slot. And Kaiir.... well we know how that went. I'd love to know what the Bills thought of Gordon. To me he was a much simpler scheme fit and had much better tape. He had a higher RAS score as well from memory. Love to know what put them off him. And they weren't the only ones btw. The Athletic have run a piece since on the process of the Chiefs trade up for McDuffie and they had two first round graded corners left at that point..... McDuffie and Elam. What were the pros seeing that I wasn't in the Gordon / Elam comparison? And this isn't an effort to point out I was proved right. It is a genuine question to try and better understand what pro teams are looking for in those evaluations.

 

[Bill from NYC]

It is easy to blame the Elam trade up and selection on Beane, but who was a defensive coach for many years, McDermott or Beane? Who knows the complexities of playing cornerback, McDermott  or Beane?

 

I am far less critical of McDermott as a coach than I once was. I do not blame him for having lost the Taylor Swift playoff game. It was stolen imo. That said, this was not his first round one cornerback fiasco. He passed on Mahomes to draft a corner 17 picks later (and was undercompensated for doing so). In 2022 he not only passed on several very good players, he actually traded UP to do so and draft Elam.

 

It is seemingly easier to blame Beame for these debacles, but McDermott is clearly at fault imo. He is a better coach than I originally thought but he has far too much power in the organization and should stick primarily to coaching, not team building, which he seems to be unsuited for.

 

Jmo.

[Rock-A-Bye Beasley]

On 3/12/2025 at 3:20 PM, Mark Vader said:

Remember, Beane got a draft pick for Marshall Newhouse. Never underestimate the man.

Unless we are talking about drafting in that late 1st - 2nd round range. Then, never overestimate the man. 
 

Remember, Beane took a 1st round pick, and in just 3 years turned it into a trade up from 6th to 5th round.