Anquan Boldin’s aiming for a return, but first he needs to be traded by the Bills

Anquan Boldin played in just one preseason game with the Buffalo Bills before retiring in August. Now the wide receiver wants to play again, but that may depend on his agent’s ability to facilitate a deal before the trade deadline on Tuesday.

In a letter obtained by ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Bills granted Boldin’s agent, Tom Condon, the right to search for a trade partner interested in acquiring the 37-year-old receiver:

In the first sentence, the Bills suggest that Boldin is looking to land with a team “closer in proximity to his home and family.”

Boldin is a Florida native who went to Florida State before spending the first seven seasons of his NFL career with the Arizona Cardinals. He then played three seasons each with the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers before playing one year with the Detroit Lions in 2016.

He signed a one-year, $2.75 million deal with the Bills in August, but he caught just one pass in preseason and retired to make humanitarian work a bigger priority in his life.

But if a trade is the only thing that can bring Boldin out of retirement, it could be tough for the receiver to find.

While he has 1,076 career receptions (ninth all time), 13,779 receiving yards (14th all time), and 82 receiving touchdowns (23rd all time), he is 37. The 584 receiving yards he picked up with the Lions in 2016 was a career low.

Now a year older and more than two months removed from his last time on a football field, there’s reason to doubt he still has anything left in the tank. Making things more difficult is the fact that Buffalo is not allowing Boldin to undergo a physical or to try out for any other teams.

If Condon is able to find a suitor that Boldin would want to play for, that team would likely want to give up as little as possible — a conditional late-round pick — to facilitate the deal.

Whether or not Boldin wants to come out of retirement doesn’t guarantee we’ll see him on the field again.