MITCHELL HORUCY
Assistant Sports Editor
With the weather starting to get nicer and the sun being out longer, this could only mean one thing.
It’s NFL Draft season.
For the Buffalo Bills, this very well may be their most important draft since 2018, when they moved up and drafted Josh Allen.
That’s worked out alright.
After moving on from players such as Jordan Poyer, Tre’Davious White, Micah Hyde and more, there are a lot of holes to be filled by the youth.
The Bills currently hold four picks in the first four rounds at 28, 60, 128 and 133.
They hold a total of 11 picks throughout the seven-round draft.
There are three things the Bills could do in the first couple of rounds that I’ll take you through, as well as my opinion on them.
The first option would be just staying at 28.
This is the most unlikely scenario for the Bills in my opinion.
General Manager Brandon Beane has traded up in each of the last two drafts. While these were only to move up a few spots, it’s still not staying in their original pick.
Typically we see teams in the mid-to-late 20s in the draft be in a “best player available” situation. This isn’t the Bills, as they have started the first mini-rebuild of Josh Allen’s career.
With that being said, there are still a lot of good players the Bills could get at 28 who could come in and make an immediate impact.
Using Pro Football Focus’s (PFF) mock draft simulator, I only looked at players with average draft positions of 20 or higher to make it reasonable.
Three players I like at 28 include Iowa cornerback Cooper DeJean, Oregon center Jackson Powers-Johnson and LSU wide receiver Brian Thomas, Jr.
Cooper DeJean is ranked as the eighth-best prospect in the draft by PFF. He primarily plays outside corner, but there has been some talk about whether he can play that position in the NFL.
Cornerback is widely considered one of the hardest positions to play based on pure athleticism.
DeJean may have the straight-line speed to play cornerback, but the question is if he can keep up laterally with wide receivers one-on-one.
Coach McDermott would likely be able to find a place for him to succeed in the defense, just maybe not at cornerback.
The second prospect I listed is center out of Oregon, Jackson Powers-Johnson.
Powers-Jackson is a tremendous talent, drawing a lot of comparisons from recently retired future hall of famer Jason Kelce.
The Bills cut center Mitch Morse this offseason after being the team’s center for the past five seasons.
Current Bills guard Connor McGovern has come out and said that he will be moving to center this upcoming season. McGovern played center mostly in college at Penn State but has played guard since he’s been drafted in 2019. The plan is to have guard David Edwards, who was their primary backup this past season, start at left guard this year.
Drafting someone like Powers-Johnson gives you many different things. He gives you offensive line depth, which you cannot have enough of, but he also adds versatility. If Edwards or McGovern were to get hurt, you would have someone who could step in right away and wouldn’t miss a beat.
The third option I mentioned was wide receiver, or WR, Brian Thomas Jr.
I think it’s unlikely he’ll be available at 28, but I will talk about him more in-depth when I talk about the Bills trading up.
Speaking of which, that leads me to the second thing the Bills could do, trade up.
There are two separate versions of trading up that the Bills could do.
One would be trading up from 28 to the high teens or early twenties.
The other would be trading up all the way into the top ten of the draft.
If they were to trade up, it’d be for one thing: a game-changing wide receiver.
In the scenario where they’re very aggressive and trade up into the top 10, there are three guys they could take, but most likely only two. Those players are Marvin Harrison, Jr. out of Ohio State, Malik Nabers from LSU or Washington product Rome Odunze.
Harrison, Jr., or MHJ, will very likely be taken within the first five picks, so he’s likely out of the picture. If the Bills were to go all in and trade numerous picks to get MHJ, it would be a great move. Even though the Bills have a lot of positions that need to be upgraded, MHJ is the best wide receiver prospect of all time in my opinion.
Nabers and Odunze are more likely, as they are usually looked at as bottom of the top 10 picks or sometimes into the double digits. Both would likely be the first WR taken in most drafts, but this incoming class is very good.
Nabers stands at 6’0” and 200 pounds with a 4.35-second 40-yard dash. Nabers is an athletic freak that thrives in space and can create a big play at any moment. He led the nation with 14 touchdowns this past college football season. He is also an exceptional 50/50 ball receiver and would be able to track down Josh Allen’s deep balls with ease.
Along with being an athletic freak, he has a large lower body allowing him to break tackles in the open field, similar to a Deebo Samuel.
Odunze is a pure X-receiver who can take over the role that Stefon Diggs had in his years with the Bills. Odunze is a bit bigger with a 6’3”, 212-pound frame, while running a solid 4.45-second 40-yard dash.
What separates him from other receivers is his route running. He can make a cornerback look foolish in the open field with his footwork and patience while running routes.
One thing he would have to do when he gets drafted is put on some weight, however. His tall but slender frame could be a problem when bigger, more physical defenders try to overpower him at the line of scrimmage.
If the Bills were to be less aggressive and move from 28 to the early 20s, there’s one guy who should be their target, and that’s Thomas.
As I mentioned earlier, the LSU product most likely won’t fall to 28, so the Bills may need to move up a few spots to get him. He’s very similar in size to Odunze, coming in at 6’3” and 209 pounds, but he had a blazing 4.33-second 40-yard dash.
While he’s the consensus WR4 amongst analysts’ draft boards, he is a step down from the top tier of receivers I previously mentioned. Thomas is unpolished as a route runner, and he has a lot of flaws in his technical game.
However, his pure athleticism makes up for a lot, and he can be coached into becoming the feature outside receiver the Bills need.
The last and final option the Bills could do is trade down.
This would be an interesting move for the team but could work out very well.
If they do this, they’ll likely move back a couple of spots into the 30s, or into the early second round.
By doing this, they could select two receivers who could make an impact from day one.
Using PFF’s mock draft simulator again, there’s three guys that are being picked at an average pick of 35 or higher that I’d really like to pick if the team were to trade back.
They are Georgia receiver Ladd McConkey, South Carolina product Xavier Legette and Oregon Duck Troy Franklin.
McConkey is listed at 6’0” and 189 pounds with a 4.39-second 40-yard dash. While not being the most athletic guy, he’s a fluid athlete who could thrive in many different roles on an offense. He could be put at outside receiver or slot receiver and would be able to see success at both.
Legette may be my favorite option if the Bills were to trade back and take a receiver in the second round. He is a huge wideout coming in at 6’1” and 221 pounds. Despite his size, he still ran a 4.39-second 40-yard dash.
Legette is an interesting prospect, as he only has one year of production at the college level. However, the one year he produced, he was exceptional.
He’s a big-body, deep-ball specialist who uses his speed and size very well to his advantage.
He’s still very unpolished and will need lots of coaching and game action before he can be a dependable number-one option, but if he gets there, the sky’s the limit.
Troy Franklin would be a decent selection, but it’s not who I would take.
He was incredibly productive at Oregon, including 14 touchdowns and 18 yards per reception this past season. He’s 6’2” and 176 pounds, which is something to be concerned about if he’s going to be playing outside receiver.
With that being said, he has great speed, clocking in a 4.35-second 40-yard dash.
He has tremendous deep ball skills and could stretch the field for the Bills.
With his combination of speed and size, he is always a threat to take the top off a defense and find the endzone on a deep shot.
While the Bills may be entering a new era, a great way to start it off right is with a good draft.
Tune into the draft this Thursday, April 25 at 8 p.m. on ABC.