If Beane was fooled by Elam, so was the rest of the NFL world. I know people hate mock drafts, and they are useless as predictors of actual picks. But they are useful in looking back on the consensus of the football world on a player leading into a draft. Every mock that I can find for the 2022 draft had Elam as a first-rounder, and all but one had him going before the Bills pick. Sometimes, a player does not live up to their potential. I could create a long list of these players, but they sting a lot more when that happens to your favorite team.
What we know about Beane's drafting is that he focuses a lot on physical traits over college performance. Sometimes that works (Josh Allen, Groot) and sometimes that doesn't (Elam, Cody Ford, and perhaps Spencer Brown). I actually think that the lack of big-time winners in high school and college on this team is holding them back at crunch time in the playoffs, but every time I state this on here I get a lot of red exes and throwup emojis. For example, Josh has never won a championship, and I don't think Diggs has either. The Bengals are loaded with guys who won in college. The game is never too big for Joe Burrow because he played in the Ohio High School Championship Game and in the CFB Playoff Championship game. Higgins won at Clemson. Chase, of course, won at LSU with Burrow. Mahomes won a state championship in Texas, which was probably the biggest game in his life until he played in the Super Bowl. But then again, neither Brady nor Kelse won anything in high school or college so what do I know?