Logic

Wolfe and DeCosta, as much as I like them, are probably not realistic options. Both seem to have hand-shake deals in place to replace the current, getting-up-there-in-age GMs of their respective teams.

I may be extremely naive (probably the case), but it's hard to believe that A.) Beane would be dumb/disloyal enough to divulge Panthers draft information B.) McDermott, with all his talk about character and integrity, would call Beane up and say "Hey man, would you mind screwing over your current employer and breaking league rules in order to give me the upper hand in this draft?" The whole thing seems far-fetched. If anything, I think McDermott just intimately knew the Panthers' team needs due to having been a member of their organization during scouting season and being a detail-oriented person.

If Decosta and Wolfe aren't realistic options, give me Veach.

Ditto. I think that in this scheme, with his father as his position coach, and now that he finally seems healthy, he would excel. And most importantly, as you stated, it would free up Hyde to be the swiss army knife that he SHOULD be in this defense. Hyde, to me, is not an every down classic safety. We need to add someone that IS so that Hyde can do his thing and maximize his value to the defense.

I feel good about the depth chart at the cornerback position. Darby White Seymour Wright Johnson Cromartie (Hyde will play nickel at times) Now if they can just go get a veteran safety, I'll feel much better about things.

They apparently signed two UDFA safeties, but both seem about the same quality as the guys already on the roster behind the top two. Unless somebody seriously surprises in camp, they need another qualified guy at the position IMO. That's just it. They DID add more draft picks, but then lost them again by trading back up. The trade DOWN was fine, but I sort of would have preferred they didn't trade up in the second and lose that extra 3rd. That would have been a prime spot to take a legit safety prospect. I would have felt much more comfortable drafting a safety rather than a RT, to be honest. Mills can be improved upon, Henderson and Kuoandjio have, in the past, shown they can be decent spot starters. Behind Hyde and Poyer, though? Nada. And even Poyer himself isn't anything to get excited about.

Was not taking a safety in one of the best safety classes in recent memory. I realize that with all the Bills' needs, they weren't going to be able to select a player at every position of need. That being said, the depth behind Hyde and Poyer is non-existent right now. If one were to get hurt, we'd have the likes of Jonathan Dowling or Gary Shamiel starting. Who? Exactly. Furthermore, I was hoping for one more legitimate safety so that Hyde could slide down to big nickel on certain down and distances. Any worthwhile FA safeties still sitting on the market? I have some faith that things will be okay at WLB, but at safety? Eesh. Frighteningly shallow talent pool on the Bills roster currently.

Every year, we see tons of mock drafts, and they all wind up being extremely different than reality. One exercise I like better is to look back AFTER the draft, once it is known who was available at each pick, and compare who you would have drafted if you were GM. I should make it clear that I have no problem with the Bills draft. I liked it. I just think it's fun to compare your own tastes with the picks made by the Bills. That said, here's mine. To start with, I wouldn't have traded down from 10. Why? Well... RD 1 - FS Malik Hooker Potential as an elite center fielder would have been too much for me to pass on RD 2 - LB Zach Cunningham Instant starting WLB RD 3 - CB Cordrea Tankersley - Would compete to start at #2 CB immediately RD 5 - HB Brian Hill - Competes with Jonathan Williams to be HB2 RD 5 - WR Shelton Gibson - WR to compete with Holmes/Brown for WR 2/3 RD 5 - QB Nathan Peterman - Good developmental QB RD 6 - OT Adam Bisnowaty - Won't be ready immediately, but has tools to start one day The obvious negative to my alternate draft is that we do not have an extra 1st round pick next year and we do not as effectively address WR. That being said, I think what I laid out would better help the team in the immediate term. S, LB, and CB needs capably filled. Add running back depth and more of a developmental tackle. Holmes and Brown are adequate as WR2 and WR3 for one season if Gibson doesn't impress in camp. I do not pretend that my draft is any better than what the Bills did, as that's impossible to know at this point. Just stating how I would've picked. And you?

Why Malik Hooker? He has the looks of an elite center fielder for the next 10 years.

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/sports/college/lsu/2015/08/08/became-lsu-tradition/31352635/ How the No. 18 became an LSU tradition Glenn Guilbeau – gguilbeau@gannett.comPublished 5:18 p.m. CT Aug. 8, 2015 | Updated 3:33 p.m. CT Aug. 9, 2015 BATON ROUGE – LSU director of athletic training Jack Marucci clicked on the NFL Network to catch some of a preseason game and could not believe his ears. The Philadelphia Eagles were playing, and general manager Howie Roseman was being interviewed in the TV booth. The subject was defensive tackle Bennie Logan, a third-round draft choice out of LSU. But that’s not what knocked Marucci over. LSU has players all over the NFL....

Brian Burke‏ @bburkeESPN Follow More BUF really makes out. 1816 to 1300 JJ's with a 106% discount rate. 12 AV to 6 AV with an inf discount rate on my AV-based model (h/t @pfref) Football Perspective‏ @fbgchase Follow More KC traded 27, 91 and 2018 1st to move up to 10. If you value 2018 1st at 24th ovrl, BUF gets 170 cents on the dollar in my chart, 120 on JJ. Warren Sharp‏ @SharpFootball Follow More Bills (#27, 91 and 1st rd in 2018) got the better deal in #NFLDraft trade w Chiefs (#10) by getting 36.1 draft points & losing 19.9.

Fair enough. Here's the key, though: The BILLS didn't seem to think that there was a QB worth taking a risk on at 10. Maybe you felt that way, but the Bills clearly didn't, or they would have pulled the trigger. The most telling indicator regarding their feelings about the QBs in this draft, in my opinion, was that shortly after meeting/working out most of the QBs, they signed TJ Yates. It was as if they looked at what was out there in the draft and said "nah, not this year". So what did they do? Drafted defense and acquired extra capital for next year. Time will tell whether QB is the pick next year or whether they even have a shot at a decent one, but it seems clear to me that they didn't view this year's QBs as franchise material. We'll see whether or not they were right in a few years.

OP's numbers are not what I've seen elsewhere. I have seen two different sources claim that the Bills come out ahead in the math.

Man... EVERY SINGLE YEAR leading up to the draft, ALL I hear from Bills fans is "the Bills should trade down!". This was ESPECIALLY true this year with all of the needs they have and only having six picks. I also always hear how the Bills should pick up a future 1st round pick so that they can have two 1sts to go after a franchise QB. So wouldn't you know it? The Bills actually trade down this year, add draft capital in THIS draft AND a 1st round pick in a loaded 2018 QB draft year, still get a top cornerback (their biggest need)...and many Bills fans are bitching. Some things never change. I don't know. Adding a pothead from Alabama to a roster that ALREADY has a pothead from Alabama seems like a recipe for double suspension disaster to me.

Two things to remember about Foster: One is the shoulder. After Ragland and Lawson injury situations last year, it's hard to blame the Bills for shying away from a guy who may need surgery and may not be able to start the season. The other is his alleged character concerns. There's the diluted urine sample as well as the reports that he is surrounded by some bad/unsavory people. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if his character concerns took him off the Bills' board.

So McDermott, who ran the Panthers defense, got hired as a head coach because of the success of the Panthers OFFENSE? Yeah. Sure, man. Got it.

I think he'll re-sign with the Vikings on a low cost, 1 year "prove it" deal when his contract is up. "Unfinished business" and "I wanna stay with my guys" and all that. Meh.

Yes, sometimes I DO get draft pick selection leak. It's pretty embarrassing. I usually just run for the nearest latrine.

Thomas Davis switched positions coming into the NFL. He thrived in the McDermott D for years. If you don't like Reddick, fine. But there's got to be a reason other than "switching positions".

Couldn't disagree more. Your current scouts have put in months and -- in many cases -- YEARS of work scouting these players. You don't throw all of that out by firing everyone. Not only is it a waste of tons of intel, it also allows those scouts to find work elsewhere and bring the hard work they did on your company dime to another team. Your draft preferences, strategies, etc. It is far, FAR more logical to fire a front office AFTER a draft than to throw away all of their work and ask a brand new front office to speed-scout an entire draft in 3 months. To quote Joe Buscaglia: "If you unload the general manager and scouting staff in January, especially after they've just concluded a season's worth of work on all the prospects you're considering for the NFL Draft, your trade secrets are no longer put away with a lock and key. Unfortunately, the more prudent business decision is to let them go just after the draft is over -- especially if there isn't a GM-in-waiting that can keep the whole staff calm in the interim."

Agreed. I also think that there is a bigger drop-off from the tier 1 WRs (Davis, Williams, Ross) to the tier 2 guys (Jones, Kupp, Smith-Schuster) than there is from the tier 1 LBs and CBs to the tier 2 LBs and CBs. Another way of saying that is that I think the depth is greater on the defensive side of the ball in this draft, and thus the Bills can land a quality LB, CB, and S in later rounds. And last but not least, hopefully the Bills realize that Watkins' injury concerns the past two seasons mean that his health for a full 2017 season is not guaranteed and that, therefore, they should plan accordingly and add a top tier pass catcher. Davis is my top choice. I think he'll make an immediate impact and will blossom into a true #1 receiver. Also, with the large contract that will be necessary to keep Watkins a Bill past 2017, it just makes good sense to have cheap labor across from him for the next five years.

Thanks for the time and effort, Bandit. Yours is one of the most well thought out, reasonable, logical mocks I've seen anywhere. Oftentimes, when you see a mock on a given team's forum, it doesn't give much thought to what other teams will do. You seem to have done that, though. For instance: Everyone knows the Giants want to trade up for an offensive tackle, and you have them doing just that. Good stuff. As for the selection you have Buffalo making...may I ask what leads you to believe that the Bills are more likely to select a WR than a defensive player? I'm just curious what your thought process was there.

I want no part of Barnett, and it has nothing to do with the fact that DE isn't as big of a "need" for the Bills as other positions. It has entirely to do with the fact that Barnett as average to below average athletically for the position. He's a Bjoern Werner with better college production. NOTHING about him is special athletically. Winning with your hands is something you can teach to a superior athlete. You cannot, however, teach superior athleticism to someone who can win with his hands. No to Barnett.

He already knows this after watching the kid play in 11 NFL games?! I wonder what he would have said about Jerry Hughes after watching him play in HIS first 11 NFL games?

Benoit is right a lot of the time, but he IS leaving out some things in his Tweets today. He says the Bills need to add two receivers to Sammy Watkins through the draft. While I agree that they need to draft a receiver, I would argue that either Holmes or Brown will be a fine #3. I don't think drafting two receivers (especially when they have only six picks) is wise. His opinion on Hughes also leaves out the fact -- as others have mentioned -- that the Bills DO have interior pass rushers on the d-line as well as Shaq Lawson at DE, who was a first round pick just last year and had quite the career at Clemson. All that being said: Do NOT be surprised (especially if the Bills trade down) if a pass rusher is selected on day one or two of this draft. It's a hidden need that a lot of Bills fans aren't thinking about but which McDermott needs to make his defense thrive.