Not Who But What the Buffalo Bills Should Draft
The Buffalo Bills should draft the best player available. Also, the best player available is a receiver. This astounding coincidence that limits the choice to one position makes selecting easier. The certainty is as comforting as the reason for the constraint is vexatious. Their Michelin-starred chef shouldn’t be limited to Top Ramen.
Noting how few they’ve added in the Beane era is almost as deflating as noting how late they were selected. It’s not to bash the players selected as much as it is to note a team with a generational quarterback should add them way earlier.
Search for Justin Shorter’s NFL stats and be advised to try adjusting the filters. Khalil Shakir has been pleasantly productive for the 148th pick, which is an endorsement of him as much as it is a condemnation of Brandon Beane’s unwillingness to add someone at the same position earlier whose success would surprise less.
Beane’s other selections seem like a dare to irk his meal ticket. Marquez Stevenson is being coached by Wade Phillips in whatever USFL/XFL hybrid draws desperate fans this spring. Gave Davis might be catching passes from Mac Jones, while Isaiah Hodgins wonders if Tommy DeVito will ever be offered cash to appear at a pizzeria again.
Not drafting a first-round receiver is a criminal offense that should result in arrest if it continues one more time. Beane can avoid bounty hunters by changing his ways. Of course, one of those first-rounders was used on a passer named Josh Allen. Selecting Ray-Ray McCloud and Austin Proehl in the same year shows the roots of an underwhelming habit.
A tight end in name only tapes an asterisk on Beane’s drafting tendencies. Skeptical fans might count the Dalton Kincaid choice as if he were called a big slot receiver. Names can distract from roles, as tight ends have left behind the era where they were blockers who were technically eligible to run routes. Now, Allen needs certain receivers.
Not every player loss is equal. Stefon Diggs is inscrutable elsewhere. We no longer waste hours attempting to to ascertain if he’s disgruntled distracts from wondering if he’s diminishing physically or just in this offense. Houston can fret about that while Buffalo worries about finding his replacement.
That’s enough indirect help. Receiving what Allen throws is the supreme method for assistance. The Bills could add a running back who’ll entice opponents to stay in the box, an offensive lineman to create more time to throw, or a a linebacker who’ll keep down opposing scoring. But none will benefit directly like a field-stretching boundary wideout who’ll reach the end zone as quickly as the best quarterback in our universe can launch it.
They may already have the best available at particular positions. Drafting by need is often mocked as a short-term solution. But a seemingly myopic approach may work best for their situation. You might think it’s naturally better to take a Ferrari over a Subaru if neither had been selected. But drafting for a Buffalo winter means you’ll get more use out of the ostensibly blander option.
General managers can save Magic 8 Ball queries for asking if they’ll be famous. Drafters needed to be more psychic in the past. Now, the era of semipro college-athletes means they’re not seeking starters for three years from now. Your draft coupon for a target is valid in September.
If the Bills have a ranking of every prospect, it’s a test of self-honesty. Only those who compiled it know if they’re lying about who they’d take next regardless of position. Do you think they’d pick, say, a quarterback? Or would they slide down a few spots on their own depth chart to select someone to field throws from such a player? They can show me the draftee hierarchy and I promise to keep it secret.
A little fib about the overall ranking is welcome if it leads to making the most obvious decision outside of firing Don Granato. The best time to do what’s right is years ago, while the second-best is this draft.
The stubborn refusal to do what will please the city’s most important figure might be the sole thing more aggravating than the Sabres wandering in the desert during the playoffs. Wasting talent spurs historical regret. The Bills don’t want to end up like the Lions with Barry Sanders with a stubborn refusal to add blocks of granite for him to pirouette past. They’ve enjoyed more success than a historically woeful franchise, which is in part testament to the quarterback’s excessive prominence. But the lack of ultimate success is frustratingly binary.
