The Buffalo Bills may not be done looking at their backup quarterback spot, even with Kyle Allen currently lined up behind Josh Allen. One trade idea has them sending a 2027 7th-round pick to bring in Kenny Pickett, a move built around giving the Bills more competition in a room that has changed often.
That search is easy to understand. Kyle Allen is the kind of name the Bills know well, but he has not been a full-time starter since 2019 with the Carolina Panthers, when he played in 13 games and threw for 3,322 yards with 17 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. The Bills have cycled through Matt Barkley, Mitch Trubisky, Kyle Allen and Case Keenum as Josh Allen backups since 2018, and Mitch Trubisky and Kyle Allen each had two stints with the team.
Chris Landers of FanSided.com put forward the Pickett idea as a low-cost gamble, with the quarterback’s stock described as having little room left to fall. His time as a starter in Pittsburgh was called largely disastrous, and the broader case is simple: if a backup has to be ready to keep the offense steady, the Bills want more than a familiar face who has mostly lived in the margins of the lineup.
That is where the numbers matter. The Bills already hold two 2027 7th-round picks from a Day 3 draft trade with the Las Vegas Raiders, so a Pickett deal would not strip them of a rare asset. It would be a small price for a possible upgrade, especially for a team that has spent years trying to settle the job behind Josh Allen without fully solving it.
The catch is that Kyle Allen is not some anonymous emergency arm. He has played with the Panthers, Commanders, Texans, Bills, Steelers and Lions, and he is still the current backup. That gives the Bills a stable name on paper, but not necessarily a setup that inspires much confidence if they need to lean on him for real games.
The Bills’ next move is the point. They can keep the backup room intact and trust Kyle Allen, or they can use one of those extra 2027 picks to bring in Pickett and force the competition the roster may still need. Either way, the question is no longer whether the Bills have a backup quarterback issue. It is whether they are willing to keep treating it like one.
