Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

‘“Bryan Cox Jr.?” I ask. “Son of Satan,” Tom replies.’

‘Remember, the Bills lost defensive linemen Jordan Phillips and Shaq Lawson and cornerback Kevin Johnson in free agency, linebacker Lorenzo Alexander retired, and several other backups won’t return including lineman Corey Liuget, linebacker Julian Stanford and safety Kurt Coleman.’

‘“We felt like the teams that come out of this the most prepared, the most unified, would potentially have created a competitive advantage,” McDermott said Thursday during a 45-minute Zoom video conference call with reporters. “That remains to be seen, but we felt like when (virtual meetings) kicked off a week ago that we were ready to go. I give our staff a lot of credit for that.”’

‘New Bills defensive line coach Eric Washington held that role previously in Carolina and probably had a say in the signing of Cox, who joins a defensive line competition that will be stacked.’

‘The defense has been way ahead of the offense, and it was the primary reason why the Bills made the playoffs in 2017 and 2019. “We have to keep our defense strong,” Beane said at the start of the offseason, and it appears he has.’

‘It’s quite possible that none of the seven will earn a starting job this season, but he added competition to six different position groups and each player has a great chance to fortify the two-deep depth chart that most playoff teams boast.’

‘“I would have lost the bet today,” Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane said Friday night when the big run on receivers prevented him from considering one with the 54th overall pick in the second round, the one he used to take edge rusher A.J. Epenesa. “I would have thought there would have been a wide receiver that we would have still had a second-round grade on, but there wasn’t.”’

‘Here’s what the national media thought of the Bills draft…’.

‘The Bills added seven players, and Beane — who amazingly didn’t make a trade all weekend — was thrilled to get each and every one of them. Each pick was a culmination of work that began last fall with college scouts on the road gathering the information that formed the foundation for the selections of the newest Bills.’

‘On Saturday, the Buffalo Bills finished adding to their Lunch Pail Gang, a collection of blue-collar players, led by Iowa defensive end A.J. Epenesa and Utah running back Zack Moss, who would do just fine at the Tonawanda GM plant.’

‘“The high point catches are his specialty and he has sneaky good ability to get off the line of scrimmage with really fast hands and a strong upper body,” ESPN’s Louis Riddick said shortly after the pick was made. “This is a great job by them to compliment the receivers they already have with a much different body type, and a guy who has a great catch radius who can produce a lot of big plays down the field.”’

‘Davis led the American Athletic conference in receiving and was 12th in the FBS in receiving yards (1,241), tied for 11th in receiving touchdowns (12) and eighth in receiving yards per game (103.4). He broke the UCF record for most receiving yards in a single season and had five games with multiple touchdowns in 2019.’

‘Fromm was a perplexing case in this draft because there was no denying that he had a fine career for the Bulldogs, a three-year starter who played on some of the biggest stages in college football and accumulated 35 victories which were the most of any FBS quarterback over the last three seasons.’

‘Fromm doesn’t have the strongest arm, which ESPN analyst Mel Kiper believes hurt him at the NFL Scouting Combine.’

‘Bass had a solid career at Georgia Southern, and in addition to be an accurate kicker, he was outstanding on kickoffs, something that Hauschka has occasionally struggled with.’