The Buffalo Bills are Facing a Dilemma with Boogie Basham

The definition of “dilemma” is, “a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives, especially undesirable ones.”  And if the Bills defensive end room stays healthy from now until the beginning of September, Brandon Beane will have a dilemma on his hands.  

Even with Von Miller possibly missing the start of the regular season due to an ACL injury, there is a logjam of defensive end talent that the Bills will have to assess over the next six weeks.  If Miller is placed on the Injured Reserve, the Bills will likely start Leonard Floyd and Greg Rousseau Week 1 versus the Jets.  A surging AJ Epenesa and Shaq Lawson (who started in Miller’s absence last season) are the front-runners for the 3^rd and 4^thslots and if the Bills want to carry five at the edge position as they did last season, they’ll need to choose between Boogie Basham, Kingsley Jonathan, Shane Ray and Kameron Cline.

On the surface, Boogie Basham would be the obvious choice to be the fifth defensive end on the 53-man roster.  He knows the Bills defensive scheme, he was a 2^nd round draft pick by the current regime and he’s shown some flashes of being what the Bills thought they were getting when they drafted him 61^st overall in the 2021 draft.

However, if Von Miller starts the season on the IR, the expectation is that he’d return by week 6.  If this is the case, the Bills will once again be faced with an excess of EDGE rushers with too few slots on the 53-man roster?   

Assigning Boogie Basham to the practice squad could possibly lead to another team signing him and it is highly unlikely that the Bills would simply cut a player that was drafted so high and who has a year of eligibility remaining after the 2023 season.     

The most sensible solution would be to trade Boogie Basham before the season starts. Other teams had him graded favorably before the 2021 draft and other teams will likely need some EDGE depth right before the beginning of the season. But is Brandon Beane willing to trade a former 2^ndround pick for what will likely be a later-round future draft pick? He might not have much of a choice.

Bills Mafia appears to agree with trading Basham, expressing this in a recent Twitter poll.

Time will tell how Brandon Beane will handle the defensive end position. If everyone stays healthy over the next six weeks, trading Boogie Basham would be the most logical move.