Logic

Yeah, having the 3rd and 2nd ranked offense in the league the last two years really demonstrates his inability to build an offense. I thought the perfect offensive game against the Pats — something no other team in NFL history has EVER done — was particularly illuminating as to his inability to construct a good offense. Honestly…what planet do some people live on?

Fanspeak’s mock draft machine (CBS Sports big board) must be broken, because this haul seems impossible to me. If it somehow did happen, I’d do naked cartwheels down Chippewa Street.

Good post, I actually agree with your overall point. I’ve said all offseason that I’d like them to draft a WR in the first and to stack talent on offense. Still, it’s at least worth asking: which would have more likely allowed us to win last year’s Chiefs game rather than lose it? Defensive reinforcements or offensive reinforcements? An Edge and a corner or a wide receiver and a guard? Where was the level of play more deficient, WR or CB? That’s my main point. We didn’t lose the most important game of last season due to a lack of offensive talent. While I’m hoping for a shiny new WR, it’s easy to see how an elite corner would help push us past the Chiefs and the other potent AFC offenses more than another weapon for Josh.

I HOPE Stevenson and/or Hodgins turn out to be good receivers. Hope is not a strategy. Get me a WR by round 4 and I'll be happy.

Kind of a funny thing to say about a head coach who resides over a team that ranked 3rd and 2nd in offensive points per game the last two seasons, and who have one the pass happiest (particularly on 1st down and in neutral down and distance situations) , most modern, forward thinking offenses in the league. We're talking about the guy who has directly said "it's a quarterback driven league" and "I want to score as many points as possible, whatever it takes". Conversely, the Bills ranked 1st and 16th in defensive points per game allowed over the last two seasons. And while that #1 ranking was nice last year, we all saw that against good passing offenses led by good quarterbacks, they often folded like a cheap suit. I want to keep the offense potent and to add a couple WRs as much as the next guy, but I don't know how anyone could watch the Bills get bounced from the playoffs two years in a row due to giving up 35+ to the Chiefs and conclude that drafting a few defensive players will make them "shake their head". Offense is not what prevented the Bills from going to the Super Bowl last year. I mean, coaching was, if we're being honest. 13 seconds. We all know. But if we ARE gonna blame one side of the ball for that loss, it's damned sure the side that gave up 35+, not the side that scored at a record pace in the playoffs.

Yeah. Making a simple brain fart name mistake and not having a lot of Twitter followers definitely disqualifies him from knowing anything.

Too light in the britches. He's 6'4", 220 lbs. For comparison's sake, Tremaine Edmunds -- who many here are convinced is too slight of build to effectively play MLB -- is 6'5", 250 lbs.

okay.

This fella on Twitter that some seem to think has Bills connections (I have no idea if he does or not, but some swear by him) has this to say: A reference to the Tweet by Zig Fracassi, I assume. and… Maybe the Bills just don’t want to pay Edmunds the type of money he’s gonna be looking for. Can’t re-sign EVERYBODY, and getting cheap off-ball linebacker labor to replace Edmunds (whether he’s traded or we just let his contract expire) seems pretty Beane-y.

The first round of the draft is said to be weak OVERALL by most experts' reckoning, this is true. The 1st round draft pool is shallow, meaning that after the first 10-12 picks, anyone you pick probably has a "true" 2nd round value. All the more reason for a team like the Bills, sitting at 25, to say "I'd rather get a true 1st rounder with my 1st round pick by trading up than staying at 25 and getting a guy that would be a 2nd rounder most years". It also doesn't mean that there aren't some superstar level talents coming out. Sauce Gardner and Derek Stingley both profile as Pro Bowl caliber cornerbacks. The rumor may very well be just smoke, as you say. But if anything, the draft having a big dropoff in talent after the first half of the first round is MORE reason to trade up, not less.

I understand that perspective and don't necessarily disagree. If I had my say, there would have been a WR on the board here worthy of a 1st round pick. The way this draft played out, there was not one, in my opinion. So my choices were to either say "to hell with value and BPA, I'm taking a WR come hell or high water", or to do what I think NFL GMs more likely ACTUALLY do: Take the best player available. In real life, I think the Chiefs are going to trade up and get Jameson Williams and I'm going to hate them for winning their "trade Hill away" gambit. In this exercise, though, I couldn't turn down adding two premium defensive playmakers, both of whom fell further than they should have, for the sake of reaching for a WR who was not worthy of a 1st round pick. The Chiefs defense also legitimately needs an infusion of talent, and I think part of the calculus of trading Hill away may have been to get extra draft capital to improve the team in other key areas. Classic "need vs value" argument here, and for me, value wins out. Only bad GMs reach for need, in my opinion.

When asked about corners recently, McDermott basically said "first, let me mention that Tre White is doing great in rehab. Second, we have great faith in Dane Jackson and Cam Lewis." Now, obviously a coach is going to say he has faith in his guys, and we know McDermott's answers are pretty vanilla in general, but...It doesn't seem inconceivable to me that they really DO like Dane Jackson and Cam Lewis, that Tre White will be ready by October, and that they plan to sign a veteran CB. We already know they were in on Patrick Peterson. A cornerback depth chart of: Dane Jackson Joe Haden or Steven Nelson Taron Johnson Mid round draftee (Cam Taylor-Britt or Josh Williams type) Cam Lewis ...until Tre White comes back...would not shock me.

Fair enough. Teams also don't ALWAYS get the draft trade value chart value on trades like this. If I'm not mistaken, the Bills didn't get full trade chart value on the trade-down in 2017, when they took Tre White. If Schoen likes the deal, I doubt 100 points on a value chart is gonna stop him. OR...I could be totally wrong, and he sticks to the chart like glue, and the Bills have to throw in another pick. Who knows.

Maybe we all have it wrong. Maybe Beane plans to sign a veteran CB, really likes Dane Jackson, and only wants to move ahead of the Pats to 19 or so to ensure that he gets a prime WR. Certainly a move up from 25 to 19 is more doable and less expensive in terms of draft capital than a move all the way to 7 would be. Maybe Jameson Williams gives Beane a half chub?

Someone earlier in this thread looked up the trade value chart and saw that our 1st this year, 1st next year, 3rd this year gets us almost to the Giants' pick, but falls a bit short. More likely it would have to be our 1st AND 2nd this year and our 1st next year, and we could maybe get a late round throw-in pick back, too. That's a lot of cheddar. It's hard to believe Brandon "I love my draft picks" Beane would give up that much. Then again, corner really is a premium position, five years of cheap labor there would be huge, and it's hard to argue that a Tre White/Sauce Gardner pairing wouldn't potentially push this defense into a new stratosphere. We also can't overlook the sudden increase in offensive potency of the AFC as a whole, or the fact that giving up 35+ to the Chiefs in back to back playoffs kept us out of the Super Bowl. I'll tell ya what: If a truly top tier pass defense can get us past the Chiefs and the rest of the potent AFC playoff field and help us win a title, I won't give a second thought to the draft capital it took to help make it happen. I doubt Rams fans are crying about all the draft picks THEY'VE given up in recent years as they order their "Super Bowl Champions" gear.

*****. You win. Trading up for a safety is the SECOND least likely thing they could do.

I agree with "zero chance" as it pertains to trading up for a safety. Of all the things the Bills could do with their draft capital this year, trading a bunch of it and/or veteran players away in order to move up for a player at a position where our two current starters were 1st and 2nd team All-Pros last season (and are respected leaders) has to rank dead last in likelihood. And that's not to even MENTION the lack of comparative value of the safety position in the 1st round of the draft. Now moving up to get a cost-controlled 5 year deal on an elite corner? THAT makes sense. THAT's a position where we have a huge hole, where selecting one high in the 1st round makes sense, and where cheap labor for five years would pay big dividends.

Depends on whether or not they believe in BPA, and to what degree they are slaves to "need". I don't think Watson or Pierce are rated anywhere near Hill or Wyatt in terms of value. I also think that WR, corner, and edge -- their three biggest needs -- are deep enough positions in this draft that with two 2nds and two 3rd, they can address them. I also kind of expect the Chiefs to trade one of those late 1sts for an established WR in real life, and to sign Ingram, Clowney, Houston, or Hughes at edge.

Hey, at least I give thorough reasoning for my picks and then tag the next guy, unlike....oh, 30-40% of the participants in this thing 😝

Yeah I have to say that the idea of moving up for a CB makes sense to me. We know that 1. Beane has a history of moving up for players he covets. He has done so in the past and spoken about this approach many times. 2. The Bills roster will be tough for eight rookies to make, as you mentioned, meaning that a trade-up or two is likely. 3. The Bills seem to have adopted an aggressive "win now" mentality, as evidenced by Von Miller move and spending to the cap. 4. Corner is a high value position, one in which the Bills are currently highly deficient and where they could really use a cost controlled five-year deal. All of these facts combine to make me think that if Beane really liked a corner -- or any position really, but especially corner -- he would move up without hesitation. Several people have said this in this thread, and several times the reply has been the same: BEANE runs a tight ship, but if he's reached out to several teams to gage their interest in trading, it's definitely possible that one of those teams were the ones to do the leaking. Teams also INTENTIONALLY leak things at this time of years for various strategic reasons, whether it be subterfuge and misdirection or the solicitation of offers from other teams.

With the 29th pick in the 2022 NFL draft, the Kansas City Chiefs select Daxton Hill, Safety/CB/deadly weapon, Michigan Put simply, Hill was sticking out on our board like a sore thumb. While we ideally wanted to address wide receiver, corner, or edge rusher here, the value at those positions simply was not there at this spot. I also think that by the time the draft rolls around, the Chiefs will have signed Jadeveon Clowney or Melvin Ingram. We want to add playmakers on our defense at all three levels, and after the departure of Honey Badger, not to mention the increase in passing prowess in the AFC West this offseason, we needed a shot of playmaking ability and juice in our secondary. Enter Hill. He will instantly bring explosive, ballhawking ability as a safety, and also has the ability to effectively play nickel or even outside corner. In short, he will move around our secondary and make plays wherever he lines up. In 2022, he'll be a sub-package player and swiss army knife. In 2023, Juan Thornhill's contract is up, and Hill will ideally take over at Free Safety for the next decade+. While safety was not our biggest need, the value here couldn't be ignored, nor could the playmaking ability. With the 30th pick in the 2022 NFL draft, the Kansas City Chiefs select Devonte Wyatt, Defensive Tackle, Georgia Again, this was the best player on our board. A true BPA pick. The only defensive tackle under contract beyond 2023 is Chris Jones. Meanwhile, Khalen Saunders and Derick Nnadi are nothing to write home about. After giving up an eye-popping 4.8 yards per rush in 2021 -- second worst in the league -- we wanted to add talent to the interior of our defensive line and give Chris Jones some help. Wyatt's best position may be at 3T, but he can play -- and has played -- anywhere along the line of scrimmage, from 0 to 7 technique. His addition helps both our run and pass defense and gives us two movable pieces (Jones and Wyatt) that will allow us to diversify our pass rush package. David Ojabo and Boye Mafe were considered here, but the recent injury to the former gave us pause as to his potential for full recovery, and it was a touch early for the latter. @HappyDays and his Cincinnati Bengals are now on the clock.

Gotta consult with the world's most respected draft experts: Daniel Jeremiah, Todd McShay, Mel Kiper, GunnerBill. The usuals. Also, don't rush me, B word.

Great point. So again the key question is… Who might Beane be “in love” with? Gotta be a corner, right? It’s a high value enough position that moving up for an elite one makes sense. If we’re talking “elite”, Gardner and Stingley seem like the two possibilities. Of those two, I’m not sure which is more of a Beane guy.

I second Buffalo_Stampede’s comment, but also…I could see this getting out if Beane WANTS it to get out for strategic reasons.

We all agree that 8 rookies are not making this roster and that, therefore, trade-ups are likely. Wouldn’t shock me if they thought that getting an elite corner on a cost-controlled 5-year deal was worth the cost of moving up and might be the “finishing touch” on this roster.