It’s not too often, particularly in the last 15 playoff-less years, when the Buffalo Bills are the team commanding the NFL headlines, but ever since coach Doug Marrone quit three days after the 2014 season, the Bills have produced a veritable tsunami of news.

The hiring of Rex Ryan as the new coach and the signing of controversial guard Richie Incognito would have been enough to move the meter in the weeks leading to the start of free agency next week, but then the Bills dropped this bombshell on Tuesday: They will acquire star running back LeSean McCoy from the Philadelphia Eagles in a trade for linebacker Kiko Alonso.

And on Wednesday, they made another trade in an effort to shore up the quarterback position, agreeing to acquire Matt Cassel from the Minnesota Vikings in a deal that involves undisclosed draft picks.

The Bills were going to have a clear-cut need at running back. C.J. Spiller, whose fate was sealed with the McCoy trade, probably wasn’t coming back anyway as he’s set to become an unrestricted free agent.

Fred Jackson is 34 years old and at the end of the line as a full-time player. And Bryce Brown and Anthony Dixon are nothing more than depth players who haven’t proven they are capable of carrying the load.

There was talk the Bills might look at the free-agent running back crop, but the more logical plan was to take advantage of the depth of the running back class in the draft and take one in the second or third round. Now, the Bills have a star at the position, and they can move on to fill other needs in free agency and the draft.

In his first six years with the Eagles, McCoy enjoyed four 1,000-yard rushing seasons, including a career-best 1,607 yards in 2013. Last year he slipped to 1,319 yards and his average per carry was a whopping yard less (4.2) than it had been in 2013. However, McCoy had just 163 fewer rushing yards than the Bills accumulated as a team.

McCoy has appeared in 90 games, all with the Eagles, and the 5-foot-10, 215-pounder has 6,742 rushing yards (4.6 per carry) and 44 touchdowns, plus 300 receptions for 2,282 yards and 10 touchdowns. He led the NFL with 20 touchdowns in 2011 (including a league-best 17 on the ground), and in 2013 he led the NFL in rushing yards and yards from scrimmage (2,146).

The downside to McCoy: He’s got some wear and tear on his body. He has had more touches over the last five years than anyone in the NFL, and there’s a fear that he’s already on the decline (he turns 27 in July), which is nothing new for running backs in the NFL who have six years of service.

Also, he comes with a $10.25 million salary cap hit, which the Bills can handle — they still have about $17 million in space heading into free agency — but McCoy’s number is high for a position that has been devalued in recent years.

The Buffalo fan base is a little perplexed by the trade of Alonso, who became a fan favorite in his one year with the team: In his dynamic 2013 rookie season, he finished third in the NFL with 159 tackles and finished second to the Jets’ Sheldon Richardson in the NFL defensive rookie of the year voting.

However, Alonso sat out with a knee injury last year, and the Bills didn’t really miss him. In fact, their defense was markedly better in 2014, finishing fourth in the NFL in points and yards allowed. In his rookie year, Alonso got off to a great start — he made four interceptions in his first four games — but he was not the same difference maker in the second half of that season. The second-round pick out of Oregon could become a great player, but the Bills moved on easily without him as Nigel Bradham and Preston Brown emerged as solid, reliable players.

Cassel was not a free agent, but he is pretty much the equivalent of what would have been available to the Bills when free agency opens Tuesday. He’s an underwhelming 10-year veteran with a 33-38 record as a starter, a player who was going to be a placeholder last season for the Vikings until first-round draft choice Teddy Bridgewater was ready. However, Cassel suffered a broken foot in Week 3 and ended up on injured reserve.

Cassel, a seventh-round draft pick of the New England Patriots in 2005, saw only mop-up duty for three years as Tom Brady’s backup. But, when Brady suffered a knee injury in the 2008 season opener, Cassel was thrust into the starting role and guided the Patriots to 10 wins in 15 starts, throwing for 3,116 yards and 27 touchdowns.

The Patriots then traded him to the Kansas City Chiefs. But in four years with the Chiefs, Cassel went 19-28 as the starter, with 59 TDs and 44 interceptions.

He signed with Minnesota in 2013 and went 3-3, and then he began 2014 with two losses in three games. In his career, he has completed 59 percent of his passes for 15,727 yards, with 96 TDs and 70 interceptions.