There are only three days left until the NFL trade deadline, which is next Tuesday, Oct. 31. Talks are heating up as teams realize this is their last chance to get new players from other teams. Early-round defensive players in the AFC East have come up in trade talks. These players are Buffalo Bills cornerback Kaiir Elam (the 23rd overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft) and New England Patriots linebacker Josh Uche (in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft), according to ESPN.
Kirir Elam
BUF, CB, and #24
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Christian Benford, a sixth-round pick in Elam’s draft class, and Dane Jackson, a seventh-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, are ahead of him for the chance to start at either of Buffalo’s outside corners. Elam is only in his second NFL season. Two inside spots are already taken by Taron Johnson, who was picked in the fourth round of the 2018 NFL Draft, and Siran Neal, who was picked in the fifth round.
For this reason, Elam has been a healthy scratch in four of the Bills’ eight games this season: the first three of 2023 and their most recent game, a 24–18 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on “Thursday Night Football” to start Week 8. With two starts, Elam has made 14 stops in three games this season. In his first season, he started six of the 13 games he played in and had two interceptions, four passes blocked, and 41 stops.
NE Josh Uche LB #55
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Uche is in the last year of his rookie contract, and like Elam, he is behind a lot of other players for reps at edge rusher and inside linebacker. In six games this season, two of which he started, he has made six stops and two sacks. Uche had a career-high 11.5 sacks and both of his career-high two forced fumbles in 2022. Other than that, the next-highest number of sacks he has had in a season is three, which he had in 2021 across 12 games. Uche has played in 42 games for New England over four seasons, but he has only started three of them. He might work well as a fill-in player for a team that wants to improve their pass rush.
