Football - Hargrove Trade to Bills for a Fifth-Roun

Defensive end Anthony Hargrove was traded on Monday to the Buffalo Bills for a fifth-round draft choice in 2007. The deal took place only a few days after the player lost his starting job with the St. Louis Rams because of he skipped two days of practice and meetings. Hargrove was inactive on Sunday during the lost game 30-28 against Seattle. Besides he has played only three games this season.

Hargrove, just out from Georgia Tech, has been recruited as a third-round pick in the 2004 draft. The defensive end player played 35 games for St. Louis, starting 19. But this season he has just two tackles, one assist and a half-sack.

Furthermore Hargrove failed last month to show up at Rams Park on several consecutive days. The Rams fined the player an undisclosed amount and did not allow the player to make the trip to Arizona for the Rams' 16-14 victory on Sept. 24th. Rookie Victor Adeyanju, who was a fourth-round pick, replaced Hargrove on his spot. Even though Hargrove apologized for his absence, he did explain why he took time off without notifying the team.

The Rams (4-2) have currently a bye week. The team will use this time to look into the possibility of adding another defensive lineman in order to fill in Hargrove's roster spot. Indeed the trade leaves St. Louis in a critical situation with only three defensive ends: Leonard Little, Adeyanju and Brandon Green.

As for Hargrove could get immediate playing time with his new team on the ground that the Bills' pass rush has been ineffective yet and their defensive line is very limited. Besides Buffalo was down to three defensive tackles after they had to put rookie first-round pick John McCargo on injured reserve on Saturday following his left foot injury against Chicago on Oct. 8th. Eventually to make some space on their roster for Hargrove, the Bills placed linebacker Josh Stamer on injured reserve after he njured his right knee in Sunday's 20-17 loss against Detroit.