The NFL Draft is over and all the teams have made picks which will shape their franchise for the next five years good or bad (mostly bad). The Bills were one of those teams that had an opening in the most important position in football not named long snapper and were in a prime position to get that franchise cornerstone.
The Second Dumbest Move in the Draft
The Bills were sitting pretty at 12, the top QB in the draft Josh Rosen was available at 7 and they were able to move up for him without giving up next year’s first. This seemed like a no brainer, get the Best QB in this class at 7 who will lead the franchise in finally winning the division in this century. But the Bills GM/Puppet didn’t believe in common sense, he traded up to get 6th best QB in this class, Josh Allen. Josh Allen was extremely hyped up in the draft process because he has big hands, a big arm, and his HC coached Carson Wentz. If Carson Wentz didn’t have a great year last year, Josh Allen would have been a 2nd round pick. Instead, due to the Wentz effect, Allen shot up the boards because he is a small school grinder like Wentz so he must be good. However while Wentz was good in college, Allen was not so the comparison is really not even correct as outside of coming from a small school, neither is the same. But Beane, heavily influenced by Terry Pegula (more on that next paragraph) gave up two valuable 2nds to get Josh Allen, while Josh Rosen was still available and hope he ends up like Carson Wentz. It was a terrible pick and what made it worse was he most likely would have still been there at 12 where it wouldn’t be as bad a reach.
Now we go to the reason why the Bills picked Allen. The Bills have wanted a franchise QB since Jim Kelly retired. They have tried twice to draft a QB and due to many circumstances outside the QB’s control, those two failed. They have gone out to get a QB and the last one actually worked out pretty well in ending the drought. But even he wasn’t a long term answer so he was traded to Cleveland where he probably takes them to the playoffs. To add to all this is the owners Terry and Kim Pegula who are very much like Jerry Jones in how hands on they are in the franchise. Twice they have overruled the GM in who the HC should be which ended up destroying a top ten defense and destroying a top ten offense. He also fired that GM because of the HC failure and now has decided on who the QB should be. Every QB meeting, Terry Pegula was involved in and he loved one QB in particular, Josh Allen. Pegula loved Allen so much he put pressure on the GM Brandon Beane to go get him and both of them became convinced this was their guy. So they went out to get Josh Allen to appease Terry Pegula who has shown time and time again he has no idea to run a franchise and last year was a total fluke and the Bills are going to end up like his other franchise, the Buffalo Sabres.
Now we go to the rest of the draft which wasn’t half bad. The Bills 2nd 1st round pick was actually a good choice. Tremaine Edwards was considered a top 10 pick and he somehow fell to pick 16. The Bills only had to give up a third to get him and moved up from 22 to get him. Edwards is a freakish athlete who can cover and stop the run. He is also extremely young and will be the captain of the defense for years to come. In the 3rd they got a solid defensive lineman Harrison Phillips who looks to replace Kyle Williams in 2019 as the full time starter. In day three they got a couple of defensive backs who give the Bills solid depth in the secondary which they lacked next year. They also got one offensive lineman who maybe will be good and got two short Wide Receivers who are going to amount to nothing but punt returners. You can’t complain about the two wide receivers since day three picks don’t amount to much but it would have been nice to get some wide receivers with some upside that maybe will be good instead of low ceiling punt returners. Overall Day Three was a solid C.
In conclusion, after the first pick, the Bills draft was decent in that they addressed depth concerns in the secondary and defensive line and got a 10+ year starter at linebacker who will man the Luke Kuechly role. However it is that first pick that will define the franchise as they better hope Josh Allen is the next Carson Wentz and not the next Jake Locker. But it could be worst, at least the Bills didn’t draft a RB at pick #2.
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