Reports: Bills trade Cordy Glenn to Bengals, move up in the first round

The Buffalo Bills haven't been strangers to wheeling and dealing over the past 12 months -- and that certainly didn't change on Monday.

Just days after the Bills sent away Tyrod Taylor to the Cleveland Browns for the 65th overall selection of the 2018 NFL Draft, GM Brandon Beane has done it again. The Bills have now sent longtime starting left tackle Cordy Glenn to the Cincinnati Bengals according to multiple reports.

The compensation, according to multiple reports, include the Bills swapping their 21st overall selection with the Bengals 12th overall selection in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft. In addition, the Bills would be taking on the Bengals sixth-round pick (187th overall) for one of the Bills two fifth-round picks, though that pick has yet to be disclosed.

More to come on the details of the trade when it becomes available.

Joe B's Take

Here we go, Bills fans.

Two weeks ago at the NFL Combine, the Buffalo Bills insinuated that they needed to meet with the young quarterbacks to get a feel for who they are, and that it was an important part to their decision making process. Following Monday's move -- another blockbuster by Bills GM Brandon Beane -- it's clear that they must have liked what they heard from at least one of those players.

The Bills, by sending Cordy Glenn to the Bengals and moving up from 21st to 12th overall in the first round, now have all the ammo they need -- in this year's draft, not in 2019, to move up and draft the quarterback that they covet. Now, they just need another trade partner.

With Monday's trade, the Bills now own the 12th, 22nd, 53rd, 56th, 65th, and 96th overall selections. Two picks in the first round, two in the second round, and two in the third.

The beauty to this trade for the Bills, as they likely will go all in to bring in their franchise quarterback, is that it now gives teams near the top of the 2018 NFL Draft more incentive to move down and acquire more picks, while not moving so far down the order that it blows up the value they would have had by selecting at their former lofty spot.

The key spot here, to me, is at second overall, which is currently owned by the New York Giants. The reason why the Bills and the Giants are linked here is because of a past relationship, and a perceived willingness to move down.

The Giants seem content to build around Eli Manning for the short-term, which is both slightly confusing, and intriguing for the Bills in their attempts to move up the board to draft a young, franchise quarterback. Furthermore, and this is something I've touched on previously, is the relationship between Beane and Giants GM Dave Gettleman.

This is an incredibly important facet to all of this, because just as much as Beane learned from Gettleman while Beane was the right-hand man to Gettleman in Carolina, but he also learned what was important to him and perhaps how to manipulate an offer to the point in which he'll say yes.

Getting to second overall guarantees that they get one of the top two quarterbacks on the board, which to me, seem to be USC's Sam Darnold and UCLA's Josh Rosen. Those two players seem ready enough to come in and start at some point in their first year, if not right away.

The Bills also shed another huge salary off their books, and while they'll still have a weighty dead cap hit for the upcoming season, they are still saving on their salary cap along with improving a substantial resource to move them up the board, and for them to finally land what they've coveted for decades in Buffalo -- a bona fide franchise quarterback to build around.

It's all happening, and Beane is quite literally trying to move anything and everything to land a premier prospect at the most important position in sports.

Twitter: @JoeBuscaglia