Buffalo acquired veteran safety Tommy Myers from New Orleans…
Buffalo acquired veteran safety Tommy Myers from New Orleans on August 4, 1983 for an undisclosed future draft choice. Contemporary reporting confirms the player-for-pick structure, but Myers did not make the Bills' regular-season roster and was released on August 29. The exact draft choice sent to New Orleans is not identified in the reviewed record.
Buffalo Bills Received
- player Tommy Myers
New Orleans Saints Received
- pick undisclosed future draft choice (selection not identified)
Trade Analysis
The August 4, 1983 transaction is clear at the player-for-pick level and much less certain downstream. Contemporary Associated Press reporting states that New Orleans traded veteran free safety Tommy Myers to Buffalo for an undisclosed future draft choice. Pro Sports Transactions records the same date and structure. Myers was an established Saints veteran rather than a fringe acquisition: Pro Football Archives credits him with 136 NFL games and 120 starts for New Orleans from 1972 through 1981, with his 1982 season lost to injured reserve. Buffalo was therefore buying experience for its defensive backfield. The acquisition never produced regular-season value for the Bills. Myers was released on August 29 during final roster reductions, a move also reported by The Washington Post, and his career log contains no Buffalo regular-season appearance. That makes Buffalo's realized player return zero games. The legacy TradeVerdicts row tentatively linked the Saints' compensation to the 1984 third-round selection used on Terry Hoage at No. 68 overall. The reviewed draft ledger does not support treating that link as established. In fact, Pro Sports Transactions separately records Buffalo sending the 1984 No. 68 choice to New Orleans on April 20, 1983 in a different trade for the Saints' 1983 fourth-round selection, No. 112 Jimmy Payne. Because that Hoage pick was already attached to an earlier documented transaction, it should not be assigned again to the Myers deal without stronger evidence. TradeVerdicts therefore removes the speculative No. 68 attribution and preserves the August compensation only as an unidentified future draft choice. New Orleans still comes out ahead on the source-safe facts: it converted a veteran who did not survive Buffalo's final cut into a draft asset, while Buffalo received no regular-season games. The Saints receive a C+ and the Bills a D. Confidence is medium because the transaction and Buffalo outcome are strong, while the exact downstream pick remains unresolved.