By Rich Kowalski / Billswire.usatoday.com
When the Buffalo Bills traded for running back LeSean McCoy back in 2015, he wasn’t very happy about the whole idea.
McCoy was a Pennsylvania native and wanted to remain as such. He grew up in Harrisburg, Penn., and attended the University of Pittsburgh. Then he was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Bills threw him a five-year contract worth $40 million to soothe the situation over.
Since then, McCoy has been a staple in Buffalo’s offense. Despite the team’s revolving door of quarterback, he’s thrived for the most part. He helped the team set the franchise record for rushing touchdowns in a single season in 2016 and all appeared well.
This year, his storyline has shifted and meandered to a point where people started to question if the team should move on from him.
His off-the-field situation hasn’t noticeably been an influence on the running back’s play as much as the lack of a coherent run game has but you can almost bet it has mentally affected the way he’s approached the game. Football tends to be a safe haven for those struggling with off-the-field issues and McCoy has no doubt been let down in that area by a struggling offense around him.
It came to a point this past week where it looked almost certain Buffalo would move the 30-year-old running back.
The Bills have talked so much about the future that you’d think they’d move McCoy back to Philadelphia where there was reported interested.
In the end, Buffalo didn’t end up trading McCoy because moving him didn’t necessarily factor into their “win now and win later” strategy they’ve deployed since Sean McDermott and Brandon Beane arrived. They most likely wouldn’t have gotten the return back they were hoping for from a trade partner and didn’t pull the trigger.
Maybe they should have.
Since Monday’s loss to New England, McCoy has been visibly distant.
He typically appears at the podium to answer questions from the media on Wednesday’s, but didn’t this week.
He didn’t speak either on Thursday or Friday and it came to a point where the Bills’ own management wasn’t sure why.
The media surrounded his locker Friday to talk about the upcoming game versus Chicago and McCoy walked away and didn’t come back.
This all seems a bit too convenient to write this off as just “Shady being Shady.”
Is he upset the team didn’t trade him?
We don’t know specifically why Buffalo didn’t trade McCoy this past Tuesday and we probably won’t ever but it seems like things are starting to catch up to the running back, whether that be on-the-field or off-the-field.
The draft this year will be one where the Bills hope to improve the offensive side of the ball immensely and McCoy doesn’t necessarily factor much into those future plans. He’s only under contract for this year and the next and Buffalo will surely look to draft an heir to his throne in 2019.
Trading McCoy would’ve not only set the team up with more picks to use on rebuilding the offense but it would’ve given him the happiness he desired and allowed him to jump from a sinking ship to peruse something he hasn’t gotten yet: a championship.
Now, the Bills don’t have those picks and they don’t have the McCoy they want. He’s still a talented running back and his 257 rushing yards aren’t really an indictment of him as they are of the offense as a whole.
McCoy knows he and the team aren’t playing well and flat out said so after the game Monday night.
“You put a lot of work into your craft and your job and the results and outcomes are the same. It’s frustrating,” said McCoy. “In ten years I’ve had bad games, but the flow, just the season, it’s bad…I’m not really playing well at all.”
Beane, on the other hand, is blind to the fact.
“Our offense is not where we want it, but LeSean is still playing well,” said Beane.
It’s unfortunate that the clear solution to this situation wasn’t all that clear to one of the parties involved.
For Buffalo, they’re left with an unhappy McCoy, for now, and a season that isn’t going anywhere.
Hindsight is 20-20 but this regime is starting to seem more and more like they’ve drunk too much of the “process” Kool-Aid.