Free agent wide receiver Elijah Moore is heading to Buffalo.
The Bills have agreed to a one-year deal with Moore. It’s worth “up to” $5 million, according to multiple reports.
What Moore would need to do to make the full $5 million is not known, but he presumably wouldn’t have signed with the Bills if they weren’t going to pay him at least a minimum of $3.428 million, which is the value of the unrestricted free agent tender that the Browns gave to Moore on Monday.
Because the Browns made that tender offer to Moore, this signing with the Bills will count toward the compensatory pick formula. That won’t matter, however, because neither the Browns nor the Bills is expected to receive compensatory picks in the 2026 NFL draft, according to compensatory pick expert Nick Korte.
The 25-year-old Moore was a 2021 second-round pick of the Jets who was traded to the Browns after two years in New York. Last year he caught a career-high 61 passes but averaged a career-low 8.8 yards per catch.
Bills running back James Cook is sitting out voluntary workouts and trying to get a new contract, but General Manager Brandon Beane believes the player and the team have a future together.
Beane told Pat McAfee today that Cook will definitely remain with the Bills through 2025, the final year of his rookie contract, and that he’s optimistic they can work out a long-term contract extension.
“He will be here this year and hopefully beyond,” Beane said. “We love James and we would love nothing more than to keep him here longer term.”
Cook has back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons, and last year he tied for the NFL lead with 16 rushing touchdowns. And after the strong years that Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry had last season, there’s increasing talk around the NFL that teams should be willing to invest significant money in running backs.
So far Beane hasn’t shown Cook the kind of money he’s looking for, but Beane sounds interested in making something happen that keeps Cook in Buffalo for years to come.
The Browns have applied the seldom used unrestricted free agent tender to wide receiver Elijah Moore, Field Yates of ESPN reports.
This allows Moore to count as part of the compensatory free agent if he signs with another team before the compensatory formula deadline. Moore, who visited the Bills today, would make $3.428 million for 2025 on the one-year tender.
The Chiefs were the last team to use the tender, applying it to two players in 2022.
Moore spent the past two seasons with the Browns, and he set a career high with 61 catches last season and a career-high 640 yards in 2023.
The Jets made Moore a second-round pick in 2021, and he has 200 catches for 2,162 yards and nine touchdowns in his career.
The Browns signed free agent wide receiver Diontae Johnson on Monday after not drafting any receivers.
The Cowboys, in need of a No. 2 wide receiver, had interest in Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan. The Panthers, though, drafted him four picks before the Cowboys were on the clock.
The Cowboys ended up not drafting a receiver, leaving them with a void at the position.
Todd Archer of ESPN reports the Cowboys had discussions with an AFC North team about trading for a wide receiver (George Pickens?). The sides, though, parted ways on talks as the draft began.
Dallas still needs to add a veteran wideout, and free agents abound. Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports there is “building team interest” in bringing back free agent Amari Cooper.
The Cowboys traded a first-round pick for Cooper in 2018, and he stayed until the 2022 offseason when the team traded him to the Browns for a fifth-round pick. Cooper now is a free agent.
In 56 games with the Cowboys, Cooper made 292 receptions for 3,893 yards and 27 touchdowns.
The Bills used their first-round pick on cornerback Maxwell Hairston after fully vetting an allegation that he committed sexual assault in 2021, according to General Manager Brandon Beane.
When Beane was asked after the draft if the Bills knew about it, Beane said they did and are comfortable that Hairston did nothing wrong.
“Yeah, he’s an impeccable kid and we’ve done a lot of research. I think all teams were aware of the Title IX thing,” Beane said. “That was fully investigated by the school. There’s everything out, he even volunteered to do a polygraph and had notes. It was one of those where there was zero — zero — information saying that this actually happened to what the accusation was. Just like anything in this world, you can’t just take someone’s account and think that’s the truth, but yes, we fully investigated that. If there was anything to that he wouldn’t have been invited to the Combine, to the draft — he was at the draft last night. Every person you talk to at Kentucky — teammates, staff there, plus what we’ve done — I would say this is a heck of a young man, every person you ask. That’s unfortunate when things like that are attached to someone’s name and in this case, it doesn’t seem to be anything there.”
Hairston was never criminally charged and full details of the investigation have never been made public.
There’s a unique sort of pressure that comes from consistently banging on the door to a Super Bowl appearance. The Bills are feeling that pressure.
The pressure manifested itself on Monday morning, when G.M. Brandon Beane appeared on WGR Radio in Buffalo’s Jeremy and Joe Show. Needless to say, Beane came in hot.
“I was just listening to the last few minutes of your show before I came on, waiting on here, [it] sounds 2018 all over with you guys,” Beane said.
“How so?” Beane was asked.
“Well, you guys were bitching in 2018 about Josh Allen, you guys wanted Josh Rosen, and now you guys are bitching that we don’t have a receiver,” Beane said. “I don’t get it. . . . We just scored 30 points in a row for eight straight games. A year ago, I get you guys asking why we didn’t have receivers. But I don’t understand it now. You just saw us lead the league in points, when you add all the postseason. No one scored more points than the Buffalo Bills, including the Super Bowl champions. So you just saw us do it without Stefon Diggs. Same group. How is this group not better than last year’s group? Like, I don’t — like, our job is to score points and win games. Where do we need to get better? Defense. We did that. So I get it. You’ve got to have a show and you’ve got to have something to bitch about, but bitching about wide receiver is one of the dumbest arguments I’ve heard.”
The hosts then explained that there are plenty of things the hosts like about this year’s Buffalo draft.
“I get it, I’m just like — let’s be realistic,” Beane said. “Our job is not to have — it’s not fantasy football, like to trot out the best receivers. You got Josh Allen, first thing you got to do is protect him. You can’t have everything. You can’t have Pro Bowl wide receivers and have a Pro Bowl offensive line and an All-Pro quarterback and three great running backs. . . . Sure, I’d love to play fantasy football but there’s one football, Jeremy, there’s one ball. You can’t give it to so many people. So that’s where I’m like, I don’t understand this narrative. I felt it a little bit from a couple of the reporters in the thing like, our job is to score points, it doesn’t matter what receivers, what quarterback, what — if you score points at the level we scored, that is winning football.”
Beane is right. There’s only so much they can do. There’s only so many dollars that can be devoted to the roster, from a cash standpoint and from a cap standpoint.
Still, Beane’s feistiness is a reflection of the urgency the Bills are feeling to parlay the presence of one of the best quarterbacks the NFL has seen since the last time the Bills went to the Super Bowl into what would be the franchise’s fifth Super Bowl appearance.
Allen is entering his eighth NFL season. He’s smack dab in his prime. Unfortunately for him and the Bills, Patrick Mahomes is, too.
The Dolphins added one cornerback in the draft and it looks like they have plans to bolster the group with an older player as well.
General Manager Chris Grier said in a press conference on Saturday that “we’ve had a number of conversations with players” when asked about signing a veteran free agent corner and Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports that the team has been in contact with Rasul Douglas.
Douglas was traded from the Packers to the Bills in 2023 and he had 87 tackles, four interceptions, a sack, a forced fumble, and two fumble recoveries in 24 games for Buffalo.
The Dolphins picked Jason Marshall Jr. in the fourth round and have Jalen Ramsey, Kader Kohou, Cam Smith, Artie Burns, and Storm Duck on the roster. The team has been looking at trade options involving Ramsey, however, and pulling the trigger could lead to multiple veteran additions.
Last season, Josh Allen was named NFL MVP for the first time of his career as the Bills won a fifth straight AFC East division title. However, Buffalo was unable to get past Kansas City in the playoffs, losing against the Chiefs by three points in the AFC Championship Game. It was the fourth time in the past five seasons that the Bills were eliminated by Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in the playoffs, a trend the Bills will be looking to end in 2025 as they look to reach the Super Bowl for the first time since the 1993 season.
Led by one of the highest-scoring offenses in the NFL last season, Buffalo will likely look to add to the defense in the draft. The Bills have two picks in the second round this season, including one acquired from Houston in the Stefon Diggs trade last offseason. However, they do not have a third-round pick after sending their selection to Cleveland in part of the midseason trade for Amari Cooper last October.
Buffalo Bills 2025 NFL Draft Picks
Round 1: No. 30 - Maxwell Hairston, CB, Kentucky
Round 2: No. 41 (from CHI) - T.J. Sanders, DT, South Carolina
Round 3: No. 72 (from CHI) - Landon Jackson, EDGE, Arkansas
Round 4: No. 109 (from CHI) - Deone Walker, DT, Kentucky
Round 5: No. 170 (from DAL; Compensatory) - Jordan Hancock, CB, Ohio State
Round 5: No. 173 (Compensatory) - Jackson Hawes, TE, Georgia Tech
Round 6: No. 177 (from NYG) - Dorian Strong, CB, Virginia Tech
Round 6: No. 206 - Chase Lundt, T, UConn
Round 7: No. 240 (from MIN via CLE & CHI) - Kaden Prather, WR, Maryland
Check out 2025 NFL Draft picks for other teams in the AFC East:
Miami Dolphins 2025 NFL Draft picks
New York Jets 2025 NFL Draft picks
New England Patriots 2025 NFL Draft picks
Click here to see the entire 2025 NFL Draft order. Coverage of the latest news from around the NFL is available all year round from Pro Football Talk on Peacock and the NFL on NBC YouTube Channel.
For the full slate of NFL Draft content from across NBC Sports, click here.
The Bills have made a move to bring in a defensive player.
Buffalo traded No. 132 and No. 169 to Chicago in exchange for No. 109.
The Bills turned in the card to select defensive tackle Deone Walker out of Kentucky.
Walker, 21, became a starter in his final year with the program. He recorded 39 total tackles with 4.5 tackles for loss and 4.0 sacks in 2024. He also had a pair of forced fumbles and two passes defensed last season.
In all, Walker recorded 6.5 sacks and 11.0 tackles for loss in his 56 career games.
The Bills have acquired the No. 41 pick from the Bears in a swap of several selections.
Buffalo has chosen defensive tackle T.J. Sanders out of South Carolina.
Sanders was a two-year starter at South Carolina. He recorded 4.5 sacks and 9.5 tackles for loss in 2023 before tallying 4.0 sacks with 7.0 tackles for loss in 2024.
Buffalo traded No. 56, No. 62, and No. 109 to Chicago in exchange for No. 41, No. 72, and No. 240.
