Marshawn Lynch Trade: Buffalo Bills Unload Lynch and Other Players

Last week the team captain and starting quarterback, Trent Edwards, and linebacker Kawika Mitchell were released by the Buffalo Bills. This week Jamon Meredith was released and Marshawn Lynch traded to the Seattle Seahawks. And it is only Tuesday. By Friday who knows how many more players will be gone.

First-round-draft picks gone. Starters gone. Thousand-yard rushers gone. That is the way of life on a team that has yet to win a game this season and failed to make the playoffs in 10 straight years.

Bill fans will wonder why the Bills were only able to acquire a fourth-round pick from Seattle, (plus a conditional pick for 2012), for Marshawn Lynch, a former first-round selection who came up with two different thousand-yard-rushing totals in his short career to date.

With NFL running backs getting hurt seemingly every week, the Bills could have continued to hold out for the best offer. But what if the Seattle offer was the best? And the other offers were from GM's who tried to low ball Buddy Nix? This was Buddy Nix's first NFL trade as Bills' G.M. It remains to be seen if this was a case of him panicking or getting out at the right time on Lynch.

It seemed like the Bills were showcasing Lynch the last three weeks as he continued to get the majority of the carries. If they weren't showcasing him, were they willing to put their 2010 season in jeopardy by starting someone other than their best players?

Seattle was rumored to be interested in Lynch for some time, but many people thought Green Bay was where Marshawn would eventually land. They failed to step up to the table. If they fail to win the Super Bowl due to the lack of a strong running game in the playoffs, this is one deal that they may regret they didn't do.

Maybe the Packers had scouted Lynch last Sunday against the Jets and saw that he gained only eight yards in his four carries for the day. Not overly impressive, but then again not many Bills players were impressive that day.  Maybe of greater concern was the shot taken of Lynch sitting on the bench laughing with team mates with the Bills losing by 30 in the second half.

From a running back perspective, both Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller can now breathe a little easier knowing that they are the only two backs left to split the workload. At least Chan Gailey won't have to to feel pressure to find a way to get everyone some carries now.

For Joique Bell, he may wish that he had stayed on the Bills practice squad, because he would have probably been elevated to third running back. Kind of like what happened to Levi Brown. You get cut from the team before final cuts, but come back as part of the active roster.

For the rest of the Bills team, you can bet that Chan Gailey read the team the riot act as they went through the film review of the Jets game. Every player has to feel like it could be his turn next to be out of a job. So if the team doesn't come out fired up for the game Sunday against Jacksonville, I am certain that they never will.