NY’s Orchard Park On Thursday night, Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane followed his board, as he typically does during the NFL Draft.
The way the board fell prevented Beane—who is typically quite aggressive—from trading up to acquire the receiver for whom Bills supporters have been begging all winter. It was widely reported prior to the draft that he did not contact teams ranked in the Top 10 to inquire about the possibilities of trading up. He didn’t even attempt to trade up by calling any teams.
The pool of players that Beane and the Bills had a first-round grade on was thus completely depleted when pick no. 28 arrived and several clubs were looking to move up.
The team making the highest bid for the Bills’ selection was the Kansas City Chiefs. In the Rasul Douglas trade last season, Beane lost a third-round pick, and in exchange, KC offered their third-round pick. After a few minutes, Beane made the decision to fully exit the first round of a trade with the Carolina Panthers.
When Bills fans realized the Chiefs made the deal to get speedy Texas wide receiver Xavier Worthy, panic set in. Did Beane allow Andy Reid to get a new shiny toy, who NBC Sports’ Chris Simms described as “a guy with 3 rockets up his ass?” Beane wasn’t concerned with who the Chiefs were trading up for because he was moving out of the pick, and the Chiefs could move up to No. 29 and get their guy.
Buffalo essentially moved back five spots and jumped back into the third round (38 spots from 133 to 95), moved up 59 spots from the sixth round to the fifth round, and moved up 17 spots to the beginning of the seventh round.
The Bills now have another decision to make when the clock starts at pick no. 33 on Friday. They can stick and pick. Plenty of interesting options exist at wide receiver like Texas’s Adonai Mitchell and Georgia’s Ladd McConkey. Or they can go defense with someone like Iowa safety Cooper DeJean. Or Beane can make a slight trade back again to add even more draft capital and be aggressive the rest of the way.
