ORCHARD PARK - The Buffalo Bills knew they had to find a reliable veteran cornerback to take the place of injured Tre’Davious White before the NFL’s trade deadline arrived at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

They took it down to the final half hour and ultimately made a notable move in acquiring Rasul Douglas from the Green Bay Packers.

The deal also includes Green Bay’s fifth-round pick in 2024, and it will cost the Bills their 2024 third-round pick. But remember, the Bills are expected to recoup a third-round pick as part of the NFL’s compensatory pick formula for losing Tremaine Edmunds in free agency.

Douglas is a seventh-year NFL veteran who began his career as a third-round draft pick of the Eagles in 2017. After three years he went to the Panthers in 2020, then after making pit stops with the Raiders, Texans and Cardinals in 2021, he finally found a home with the Packers in 2021.

In Green Bay, the 29-year-old Douglas has started 28 of the 36 games he has played and has 10 interceptions, two of which he returned for touchdowns, plus 174 tackles, two forced fumbles and one recovery.

This season, Douglas has played very well. Pro Football Focus grades him as the 12th-best cover corner in the league. He has allowed a completion percentage of 67.6% for 11.9 yards per reception.

His size will greatly help the Bills as he stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 209 pounds, by far the biggest corner on the team.

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And contractually, the Bills are only on the hook for a little more than $800,000 in base salary for 2023. That figure rises dramatically in 2024 as he has $9 million owed to him in the last season of a three-year, $21 million contract he signed with Green Bay in 2022. But if the Bills are interested in keeping Douglas, they can certainly re-work the terms via a contract extension.

That could be one of the keys to this move because the uncertainty of White coming back from a torn Achilles has to factor into the long-term plan. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that White will be able to return to Pro Bowl form, especially since he is also coming off 2021 knee surgery.

His contract is enormous, but the Bills could get out of it if they are willing to absorb $10.3 million in dead cap space next year. In the cold-hearted business that the NFL is, that could be White’s fate and Douglas might be his replacement, again, assuming an extension is on the table and agreed to.

There had been plenty of speculation leading up to the deadline that the Bills were trying to work a trade with the Bears to bring in cornerback Jaylon Johnson, but there were reports that his agent was asking too high a price. Now, it seems Johnson will remain in Chicago and then will hit the free agent market after the season.

As for 2022 first-round pick Kaiir Elam, he is still on the team. It is unknown whether he was being used as a trade chip in any of the Bills’ negotiations, but if he was, the fact that he wasn’t moved would seem to be quite an indictment in that other teams didn’t think he was worth acquiring.

For now, Elam becomes the No. 4 corner behind Jackson, Christian Benford and Douglas, and that would probably mean he won’t be active on game days. He wasn’t last week as the Bills called up Josh Norman from the practice squad to serve as the backup to starters Jackson and Benford.

Whether Douglas can be ready to play Sunday night in Cincinnati is up for debate, but one would expect the Bills would certainly like for that to happen as they have to face a Bengals offense that features Joe Burrow throwing to star receivers Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd.

In terms of the 2024 draft, the Bills still have their own pick in the first, second, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh rounds. They also have a fifth from the Packers, a sixth from the Rams, a sixth from the Texans, and the expected third-round compensatory slot.

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana and on Threads @salmaiorana1. To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which comes out twice a week during the season, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Buffalo Bills trade for Rasul Douglas, send draft pick to Packers