3rd round draft pick snap counts

[CSBill]

My biggest red flag about Landon Jackson is that he has not replaced the very bad Defensive End, Javon Solomon. If you can't at least get by him on the depth chart, that is a sign of Trouble with a capital "T" 

[Paup 1995MVP]

10 hours ago, Brand J said:

I don’t like the argument that we’re such an “extremely deep playoff team” that cracking the lineup is an arduous task for a high pick. It’s not like the players ahead of those high picks are all pro talents. If the rookies could play, or more accurately, if the coaches believed Landon or anyone else in his rookie class was ready to play, that player would be on the field - either in a rotation, or ahead of some average to below average NFL players.

Interesting conversation about Landon Jackson.  I never watched him in college.  But I heard good things when we drafted him.  And living in the South I have seen a lot of SEC football over the past 3 decades, so I was pretty excited when we drafted him.  
 

That being said, he looked lost in the preseason.  And to not dress when you have Epenesa Salomon and Rousseau in front of you-(none are making a lot of plays so far or are super dynamic players) is a bit concerning.  I expect Hoecht to replace Salomon.  And barring injury, he could sit the entire season. 

 

We need more from our D line from someplace.  And it needs to start this Sunday against a good ascending Patriots team. 

[DrDawkinstein]

This is very typical McBeane drafting.

 

They love finding raw specimens in the 3rd round. Guys who might've gone earlier if not for a couple of small things that McBeane believes they can develop.

 

Dawson Knox, didnt catch many passes at all at Ole Miss, had some issues his rookie season, developed into one of Josh's favorite safety valves.

Bernard, looked small, didnt start right away, big question mark, developed into starter/Captain

Spencer Brown, big raw OT, took a year or so to develop, now one of the best OTs in the NFL

Dorian Williams, another small LB from a small school

 

Beane loves 3rd round Project Players.

 

 

Landon Jackson fits this perfectly.

 

Raw DE who needs time to develop. Look for him to improve next year and then really come into his own in 2027, if he can pull it off.

[TPS]

12 hours ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:

This is a corollary to the Landon Jackson thread so feel free to merge.  

I looked at the top 19 picks in the 3rd round. I don't have much of a life but I do want to get in the workshop tonight so I just did the top half.  That is 19 picks as there were 38 picks.  Bills drafted Landon Jackson with the 8th pick in the 3rd round so just about in the middle of this 

 

From NFL.com draft profile:

Sources Tell Us

“He’s tough, but I don’t see enough contact balance to play down in an odd front. Let him be a big even-front base end. He’s got a chance to become a good starter but it won’t happen early on.” – NFC national scout

 

pretty much sums up how many viewed him. Relatedly, McD was quoted last week saying something like “he’s getting close to playing.”

Patience, the kid will take a little time to mold. 

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

48 minutes ago, CSBill said:

My biggest red flag about Landon Jackson is that he has not replaced the very bad Defensive End, Javon Solomon. If you can't at least get by him on the depth chart, that is a sign of Trouble with a capital "T" 

 

Solomon plays on a number of special teams coverage units, which i don't think Jackson can help with.  

[Pete]

2 hours ago, Rochesterfan said:

 

That is another discussion that could be visited, but at the same time - let’s say they don’t get Dalton - the guys after him - none are skill players and most not starters the next - the next offensive guys were the next group of TEs.

 

Edmunds trade up - again we are talking about a 4 year starter here and a guy still starting in the league.  There are a lot of good players and many that are out of the league.  I would argue against it being not successful.

 

Elam did not work - not much more to say, but the jury is still out on Sanders.

Beane traded away a 4th round pick to move up 2 spots and draft Kincaid at 25.

 

Sam LaPorta was drafted in 2nd round, pick 34.  
 

 Edmunds we traded 22 and 65 for 16 and 154.  Beane could of drafted Rashawn Evan’s at 22 and kept our 3rd round draft pick.

 

The Bills traded picks 56,62,109 to Bears for 41,72,240 to draft TJ Sanders.  Early returns look like a big overpay.

 

The Bills moved up two spots to select Florida cornerback Kaiir Elam with the No. 23 overall pick following a trade that sent their No. 25 and 130 selections to the Baltimore Ravens. Baltimore used the 25th pick on Iowa center Tyler Linderbaum.
 

So in summation, the moral of the story is Beane, please do not trade up and give ways our draft picks 

[Maine-iac]

I'll own it.  My rant draft night.  Was posting this before we drafted Jackson.

 

[Matt_In_NH]

With hoecht out I expected to see him play.  Not sure how you cannot at least be a little concerned but at the same time I am going to let it play out this year and next before jumping to conclusions.  

[jwhit34]

Check in again at this time in 2027 and see how they are all doing. 

 

Evaluating draft picks 4 games into their pro careers in a waste of time. 

[soflabillsfan1]

15 hours ago, MikePJ76 said:

If you really want to have some fun,

 

safety Xavier watts has two interceptions so far this year.  He was taken with the bills third round pick traded for Amari cooper.

 

i will never let this go, it was a major mistake.

Wanted Watts bad.  I thought he was going to go higher.  

[RyanC883]

20 hours ago, Snappysnackcakes said:

We’re extremely deep with mid-level talent at this position. We’re a contending team and the coaches are seeing that the kid is raw and in need of coaching (my opinion here). The practice reps are important but also few and far between during a season. Don’t overthink being inactive - we don’t need him to produce this season. 

 

I agree with this.  But, it begs the question of whether you want to be drafting a raw player when you are in a win-now position.  I'm not sure there is a right answer, perhaps Jackson turns it on late in the season or next year an helps us win multiple SBs.  

 

 

[Buffalo716]

8 hours ago, DrDawkinstein said:

This is very typical McBeane drafting.

 

They love finding raw specimens in the 3rd round. Guys who might've gone earlier if not for a couple of small things that McBeane believes they can develop.

 

Dawson Knox, didnt catch many passes at all at Ole Miss, had some issues his rookie season, developed into one of Josh's favorite safety valves.

Bernard, looked small, didnt start right away, big question mark, developed into starter/Captain

Spencer Brown, big raw OT, took a year or so to develop, now one of the best OTs in the NFL

Dorian Williams, another small LB from a small school

 

Beane loves 3rd round Project Players.

 

 

Landon Jackson fits this perfectly.

 

Raw DE who needs time to develop. Look for him to improve next year and then really come into his own in 2027, if he can pull it off.

Higher ceiling lower floor players who need to adapt and grow

 

 

[ChronicAndKnuckles]

20 hours ago, TFBillsfan said:

It’s early, but trading up for Sanders in the 2nd and then selecting Landon in the 3rd are not looking like good picks. Hopefully, a light bulb turns on for both soon. 

Early is an understatement. How do you possibly judge a pick 4 games into their rookie season? This reminds me of when 80% of this board thought Bernard was a bust. 

[HurlyBurly51]

the fact he's not active over Solomon is the most disheartening part, imho

[Thurman#1]

17 hours ago, FireChans said:

Ah yes, those successful picks Boogie and Big Cody who were traded for peanuts before their rookie deal was even finished. 

 

 

Wait, you mean Beane made two bad draft picks? In the second round? Yeah, he clearly needs to be fired. Sure, they just missed the Super Bowl last year, but still, two missed 2nd rounders, hey, that's really case closed.

 

* Sigh *

[Thurman#1]

17 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Eight premium (day 1 or 2) picks in eight drafts on the defensive line by Brandon Beane. Only the two first rounders - Oliver and Groot are starters or have ever been proper starters. He has invested SIX day two picks on defensive linemen and from the four that happened before this past draft he has got just four years of rotational backup play from Harrison Phillips and now six years of situational pass rushing from AJE. 

 

It's the area of the roster where his return on investment is worst IMO and that's just the draft.... when you consider FA as well it is even more stark! But hey, he will "never apologise" for investing in the defensive line. 

 

 

Harrison Phillips started most of his third year here.

 

 And it's really not fair to try to judge rookies on whether they'll be good or not. If you did, Deone Walker for one looks pretty damn good so far. But again, that also is early. Fair enough, though, that DE has been his weakest area in his draft record.

 

 

[Thurman#1]

On 10/1/2025 at 10:01 AM, Ethan in Cleveland said:

 

My take is that it is reasonable to expect a 3rd round pick that is not injured to be dressing on game day and playing in some capacity.  

 

 

 

By that reckoning, Spencer Brown was a major disappointment.

 

Not a single snap in his first four weeks, though healthy.

 

Clearly, we never should have drafted him.

 

 

Edited Thursday at 04:55 AM by Thurman#1

[LABILLBACKER]

Yes in a perfect world you'd like your 3rd round pick to play some. Even if it's only 10-20% snaps. But in keeping with Bills tradition, I'll tow the company line and simply say "trust the coaches, they know so much more than us".  There's obviously a reason they don't feel comfortable enough to throw a jersey at Landon.  Hopefully by the end of the season he can get his feet wet on some blowout games. The bigger issue is getting Oliver,  Hoecht and Hairston on the field soon.

[Alphadawg7]

On 9/30/2025 at 6:01 PM, Ethan in Cleveland said:

This is a corollary to the Landon Jackson thread so feel free to merge.  

I looked at the top 19 picks in the 3rd round. I don't have much of a life but I do want to get in the workshop tonight so I just did the top half.  That is 19 picks as there were 38 picks.  Bills drafted Landon Jackson with the 8th pick in the 3rd round so just about in the middle of this sample.  

See the table below. These numbers represent snap count percentage for week 4.  Data source link below.  I have no idea how accurate it is. 

https://www.footballguys.com/stats/snap-counts/teams?team=ARI&year=2025&type=snap-counts

Only two other players have been inactive all four games and only one other has been a healthy scratch - a 49ers LB.  The Titans WR has been injured but not on IR.  

Two had season ending injuries in camp and are on IR.

Two had no snaps in week 4 but had snaps in 2 of 4 games. All the others that played in week 4 also played in weeks 1-3.

  

 

 

It is data and you can judge it however you want.  There is a mix of good and bad teams.  There is a mix of positions. 

My take is that it is reasonable to expect a 3rd round pick that is not injured to be dressing on game day and playing in some capacity.  

 

Shakir - despite having lost Crowder and stuck with the useless McKenzie, Shakir barely sniffed the field as a rookie.  They even brought back the Ghost of Cole later in the season.  
 

Bernard - was consider a wasted pick immediately following his draft selection and his whole rookie season where he barely saw the field.

 

AJE - barely saw the field as a rookie.  
 

Dorian Williams - barely saw the field as a rookie before leading the team in tackles in his 2nd season.  
 

James Cook - was brought along slow as a rookie and got very little usage behind underwhelming Singletary, and more frustratingly wasn't even used in the role he was initially targeted for in the draft which was as a pass catching weapon out of the backfield.  
 

And there’s even more - but point is we have brought many day 2 and day 3 rookies along slow many times that resulted in a quality to excellent players.
 

So it’s pretty premature to make a big deal about Landon right now, especially with the very large piece of missing context in your snap counts, which is depth of contributing players ahead of him who have experience in the system on a team already forced to play multiple rookies on the DL while we have several key players out via injury and suspension.  

 

 

Edited Thursday at 05:05 PM by Alphadawg7

[GunnerBill]

2 hours ago, Thurman#1 said:

 

 

Harrison Phillips started most of his third year here.

 

 And it's really not fair to try to judge rookies on whether they'll be good or not. If you did, Deone Walker for one looks pretty damn good so far. But again, that also is early. Fair enough, though, that DE has been his weakest area in his draft record.

 

 

 

I didn't judge rookies on whether they'll be good or not. I judged the six premium picks at the spot previously. 

 

And Phillips started 11 times in 4 years as a Bill. He was a backup.