LEBills

It depends. Alexander didn’t start at Toledo until his fifth year. That’s a concern to me because he couldn’t excel in the MAC until he was much older than most players. Porter is a little different because he was a converted WR so the move from O to D explains a little. Combine that with his top athleticism and I think it’s someone who may be able to be good in the NFL. So context matters, but generally, if a player couldn’t make an impact until he is older than his peers its a concern for me.

Expensive, 32, KC has a lot of money tied up in a few players

22. I talked with a Bills source who told me Dalton Kincaid’s lack of production last year was because he was a lot more injured than folks realized. “He’s gonna be a sleeper next year, trust me,” I was told. What about Amari Cooper, I asked? A shrug. “He might be done.” The implication to me being that Cooper’s days as an elite WR1 might be over, not that he would be leaving Buffalo. I still expect that if anyone would be the focal point of the Bills’ passing offense, it would have to be Khalil Shakir. https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/matthew-berry/news/matthew-berrys-25-most-interesting-things-he-heard-at-2025-nfl-combine This is notes from Matthew Berry’s time at the combine. As such it is focused on and filtered through a fantasy football lens. I do remember a couple of years ago being down on Spencer Brown. Beane kept mentioning that injuries were a key reason for his struggles. Hopefully Kincaid can make a similar turnaround in 2025… Sounds like Coop won’t be back

I’m also lower on Burden than the WR2 or 3 he usually is ranked. The problem with him for the Bills if he does make it to 30 is he was basically exclusively a slot player and with us re-upping Shakir, that is a bit redundant. If we go WR at 30 it really needs to be someone who can win out wide.

The thing to keep in mind with Thornton’s production is that the Vols had more running yards than passing yards this year. The most catches by a WR were 39 this year. Donte’s production was more a result of the Vols leaning on there running game and a talented defense with a young QB. I’m not going to try and tell anyone that he is a very polished receiver and the routes he ran were basic. But the Heupel offense has produced X-receivers that have had success in the NFL. Recently with Cedric Tillman and Gabe Davis - both who ran 4.54 40s. The more high profile disappointment has been Jalin Hyatt but he operated more off the line on stacked releases than Thornton or the others have. One reason he may be a good fit for the Bills is he is a very productive low volume receiver - leading college football in ypc - and the Bills passing game has morphed into an offense where most passing targets are lower volume. Im not sure where Thornton will wind up going, I would be excited if we drafted him round 3 (with a trade up) or beyond. The good news is for a team in desperate need for WRs with both size and speed that can play on the boundary, there are a lot of players that fit that bill from round 2 and on this year. Hopefully we take advantage and draft a couple barring some impressive FA signing.

Yes, aside from drafting Josh, the best first round pick of the Beane era is the one he traded away for Diggs. Whether it is getting someone like Metcalf or Olave from a cash strapped team with no QB, or at least taking shots at WRs early who can become dominant players for Josh, we need to keep taking shots to support him. There is FA and other draft picks to fill out the defense.

Dont’e Thornton and BTJ posted basically identical combine numbers. The production is much different but both very explosive. Thornton was an elite low volume WR this year and the Bills offense is a low volume target share offense so would be a great fit imo.

Porter is going to be a tough one because he is a 24 year old who didn’t start until his 6th season. The counterpoint to that is he was a converted WR so it took him time to become a corner. Elite special teamer which made him a good tackler and the movement skills show up on tape. Amos is so smooth and such a natural at corner. If he somehow made it to the Bills in the second that’d be an instant good starter.

You think Porter, Hairston or Amos did enough to put themselves on the Bills radar at 30? I think Porter did - if he makes it that far. Amos and Hairston are such naturals especially in zone but I’m not sure if the Bills will like Amos’s run support or Hairston being sub-190. I think they will both probably be early day 2 picks

Higgins is smooth for his size and that 10 yard split was really good. He also only dropped 7 passes on 350 targets for his entire college career. That’s with an 13.3 aDot. His hands are great. I don’t think he gets past the second round

We definitely might!

Don’t get me wrong, I think Golden is a first round player and would be happy with him at 30 which I agree is unlikely. The way he carried the Texas passing offense was awesome. I think he is fast (just not 4.29 fast), and that it shows up pretty well as he runs routes. However, when he has the ball in his hands, I think he is too easy to bring down. He only had 8 missed tackles forced on 58 catches this year and I think that may be part of the reason you don’t see him running away from defenders too often because when he gets interrupted he goes down. One of the plays that sticks with me is in the SEC Championship game, he creates nice separation, catches the pass the Starks misjudged. Golden starts running, Starks slips, catches his balance and runs Golden down. Starks ran a 4.5 40. Later in the same game he did break a tackle one on one with the corner and got run down again by the LB Mondon who just ran a 4.58. Even in one of his best catch and runs against AZ State, he got caught from behind though it was after 50 yards So in short, I think he is more of a Chris Olave or even Diggs than a Tyreek Hill. All good players.

Malaki Starks was the fastest player on the field in all the drills. I really don’t want to spend a first round pick on a Safety but if he made it to 30 it would be hard to pass up. You still feeling like Barron can follow in McDuffies footsteps as a smaller corner who can excel outside? Basically the same size but Barron tested faster.

Yea we will have to disagree there. I think he is fast enough to be a good player but don’t see 4.3 speed. Yea Tez is day 3. Probably will go to Denver with his bro.

Golden is like AD Mitchell last year. Good route runners who blow up the combine but it doesn’t match what you see on tape. AD Mitchell had no yac ability. Golden has more yac but for someone with 4.3 speed he got caught from behind an awful lot this year. He is better than Mitchell who was a mid- second rounder last year tho Felton is an interesting guy because he can make plays at all three levels but had a really high drop rate for someone who averaged less than 10 air yards per target. I like the bigger receivers this year, Harris, Horton and Higgins tho I’ve only seen Higgins gauntlet so far.

two in the last two years it seems, Coleman and Torrence. 2024: https://www.syracuse.com/buffalo-bills/2024/03/nfl-combine-2024-buffalo-bills-prospect-meeting-tracker.html?outputType=amp 2023: https://www.syracuse.com/buffalo-bills/2023/03/nfl-scouting-combine-2023-who-have-buffalo-bills-met-with-in-indianapolis.html?outputType=amp

Will be 25 in August, didn’t become a starter at Toledo until his fifth year in college. He did show out at the Senior Bowl and has gotten buzz as a first rounder lately but I would be disappointed if the Bills took him early.

Moreso than height and weight, the Bills like to draft DEs with long arms. Since 2017, Boogie Basham had the shortest arms at 32 and 7/8 inches. All other drafted DEs had a minimum of 33 and 7/8 inches (Soloman, Johnson). AJ and Groot who were the first picks in their drafts had 34 and 3/8 and 34 and 1/2 inch arms respectively. Walker with sub 32 inch arms is probably a little too sawed off for the Bills.

I’ll add this video from right after the draft to the people who were right about Shakir thread. Some of the things Kollmann pointed out like Shakir’s high catch rate, good contested catch percentage, yards after the catch, and missed tackles forced have obviously translated. He also made this video right after the shooting at the Buffalo Tops to draw attention to it and how to donate to the recovery.

“Up to” 60 mill so wonder what the incentives are and what the real value shakes out to. Shakir is one of my favorite players so excited to have him along especially if it is even less than the 15/year. Just give Cook a similar deal and then the offense is set except for extending McGovern and drafting some WRs.

I appreciate it, I haven’t seen much of his 24 games because his season got cut short pretty quickly. I’ll see if I can take a look at that Texas game. And you may remember that I loved Troy Franklin last year so now I’m thinking of moving Horton UP in my ranking (jkjk). I think you are right that is what I see in Horton, someone who can really stretch the field (he torched a young Will Johnson back in 2022) and where he is different from Franklin is he has awesome hands. For the route running, I definitely put that on the coaches and the terrible QBs he had. For Felton, honestly his size knocked him down for me. Not long arms, sub 9 inch hands, a wingspan smaller than Tez Johnson’s. And he had a pretty high drop rate for having a sub 10 yard ADOT. I liked a lot of what I saw of him attacking all three levels but unless he is uber athletic at the combine I think he may be capped a bit on upside. Ayomanor is a tough one because he also had terrible QBing too. There are flashes but I don’t think he moves nearly as well as other bigger receivers like Higgins or Harris. Would have been nice if he went to the Senior Bowl.

Do you mean David Edwards when you are talking about Guard? IF we move on from him I think Anderson would be the replacement and then a late round pick or minimum contract vet to backfill the spot, if anything.

Cisco at the right price would be great. Last year’s Free Agency there were only two safeties that got more than 7.5 per year. Anything more than that for Cisco and I think looking at other options would be better. Rather spend at other positions like corner or DL.

you think the Bills would draft him with his weight? I think Tre was the smallest CB this regime has drafted at 190 pounds. He does play bigger than his size

Doubt Amos runs that well. Good zone corner. If we decide to play more man coverage, Thomas would be nice