Bills hopeful that preseason standout WR will help team moving into season

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — The Bills are hopeful that preseason standout wide receiver Andy Isabella will be an asset to the team from the practice squad as he continues to learn after being a late addition in free agency.

Isabella, who was cut by the team in its initial roster moves on Tuesday, was one of 14 players signed to the team’s practice squad on Wednesday.

The former second-round pick was signed by the Bills in July after splitting the 2022 season between the Arizona Cardinals and Baltimore Ravens. He appeared in all three of Buffalo’s preseason games, catching six passes for a total of 63 yards. More importantly, he got several reps with the first team in practices, endearing him to many Buffalo fans this summer.

“Very impressed with Andy,” general manager Brandon Beane said in a news conference on Wednesday. “To come in when he did, to start training camp and to learn this playbook and to be able to work his way up to some reps with the ones, that said a lot about how we saw him.”

The team’s brass was happy to get him back a day later and will continue to integrate him into the system.

“He said some positive things yesterday when [coach] Sean [McDermott] and I sat down with him to let him know that we didn’t have a spot on the 53 [man roster],” Beane said. “But we think he can play and we think as this year goes on he’ll help us.”

Meanwhile, Beane addressed the team’s trading of defensive end Boogie Basham to the New York Giants on Tuesday. Basham was sent to New York along with a 2025 seventh-round pick, while Buffalo received a 2025 sixth-round pick.

A 2021 second-round pick, Basham struggled to latch on in his two years with the Bills.

“You never want that to not work when you draft a guy as high as we did Boogie, but that’s the nature of the business. These are people, and sometimes it doesn’t mesh at the right time,” Beane said. “Hopefully this next stop will be a good one for him.”

Beane compared the move to that of Wyatt Teller, who was drafted by the Bills in the fifth round in 2018 and was traded to the Cleveland Browns one season later. Teller has since been named as a second-team All-Pro twice and has made a pair of Pro Bowls.

“I didn’t do a good job with Wyatt Teller, we moved too quick on that. Boogie could go home and have a great career. I’m seriously happy for Wyatt, I hate it didn’t work here, that’s on me. The same for Boogie,” Beane said. “I’ll be rooting for Boogie other than when he steps in this building Week 6.”