Bills GM reveals why he decided to get rid of former starter
The Buffalo Bills shipped off former second-round pick Cody Ford in a trade with the Arizona Cardinals on Monday, marking the end of Ford's short time as a Bill. It was a big decision, considering that Ford appeared in 38 games with 29 starts over the course of his three seasons in Buffalo. It becomes […]
The Buffalo Bills shipped off former second-round pick Cody Ford in a trade with the Arizona Cardinals on Monday, marking the end of Ford's short time as a Bill.
It was a big decision, considering that Ford appeared in 38 games with 29 starts over the course of his three seasons in Buffalo. It becomes even more so when also considering Ford's draft pedigree.
On Tuesday, general manager Brandon Beane explained why it was time to part ways with the former Oklahoma Sooner.
"Cody really wants to start and felt that's what he deserved," Beane told reporters Tuesday. "And for us, versatility is very important. As we paired this down, it just ultimately made the most sense for the Bills and for Cody … to add a pick that hopefully we do a good job with next April."
It is obvious Ford didn't like the fact he was running with the 2s during camp. And, it's clear the Bills needed more from Ford, who struggled after he was moved from right tackle to guard in 2020.
"Through some injuries, we did make the move to guard and for whatever reason, whether it was putting on more weight, it didn't transition as well as we thought and as he thought," said Beane. "Ultimately, I'm going to look at things that we could've done on our end and more specifically, that I could've done."
It becomes even more apparent Ford's dissatisfaction with his role was the driving force behind the trade after listening to Beane's offseason evaluation.
"I think Cody probably started a little slow, but I think he was trending in the right direction," said Beane. "The real tests, we know, come in games and I thought his performance Week 1 against Indy was solid and I thought on Saturday he was one of our best. I think he really showed what he can do.
"But ultimately, he wasn't going to start for us."
And while Ford's desires were certainly part of the equation, Beane made it clear where the finger should be pointed.
"I would put most of the blame of this on me [and] not anyone else."
It's a disappointing sequence of events for Beane, who takes a lot of pride in his draft day decisions. As with any GM, he wanted to see his guy have a big year and he wanted to be faced with the task of figuring out how to re-sign Ford to a second contract in 2023.
"When you draft a player, we want to draft, develop, [and] re-sign them," said Beane. "So from that standpoint, that's disappointing for me. I gotta go back and look at our process [and figure out] where that didn't work out.
"Ultimately, in my heart of hearts, I wanted Cody to come in here and have his best year and [make us] make a decision to where we want to re-sign him or not."
But fortunately, there were multiple teams interested in Ford, so his career is far from over.
"Arizona had asked about him before and there was a couple of teams checking around on him once they realized he wasn't running with the 1s anymore," said Beane. "I think his representatives wanted him to start, as well … There were multiple teams that did call in the last three days that did call about him."
You can check out Beane's full presser below:
Featured image via Shawn Dowd / USA TODAY NETWORK
