finn

Don't overthink it, Beane. Take Amos and go get a beer.

No matter where they are in the draft, the perfect player falls to them--and they pick him. They make it seem so easy.

Damn. I know we need a CB and DT, but I secretly wanted Starks all along. The play of Hamlin has made me shell shocked.

Ravens always draft well. Maybe one of the safeties, although I don't know if it's a need for them.

It was easy to forget him last year.

Beane is going to trade down for that missing third-round pick, which is like a missing tooth to him.

Until there's a run on them just before the Bills pick.

Drafting Starks would show a lot of imagination on Beane's part, a quality he hasn't really shown. He'll think, "We already have two starting safeties, one a second-rounder last year. I'm not going to put another premium pick there when I have needs elsewhere." It's the same thinking that might have caused him to choose Boogie Basham over Creed Humphrey, who played a position Beane had covered. He didn't seem to grasp that Humphrey could have stepped in for Morse the following year, providing an instant (and cheap) upgrade, just as Starks could supplant Rapp this year or next, and allow Bishop to play his more natural strong safety position.

Beane moving up. He moved up for Allen, yes, but he also moved up for Tremaine Edmunds, Cody Ford, Kaiir Elam, and Dalton Kincaid, passing on, respectively, Jaire Alexander, AJ Brown, Tariq Woolen, and Sam LaPorta. When he gets an itchy trigger finger, bad things tend to happen. So if I see "TRADE! Bills send their fourth-round pick (56 overall) to the LA Rams for their first-round pick (26 overall)," I will turn off the computer and go to bed, knowing for sure that they a) just burned a 4th round pick for a player who would have been there at 30 or even later; or b) they did so and picked a lemon to boot.

Dane Bruegler compares him to Milano in his ability to recognize plays and fly to the ball. There's a good case for picking him with the first of the two second-round picks, with CB and DT right before and after (in either order). Would be a forward-looking pick. I loved Bernard in 2023, but he was a lesser player last year: small, slow, and injured. A Williams-Schwesinger pairing might be elite in 2026.

It's awkward. Rapp is an adequate/average strong safety, and Bishop projects to be an upgrade, even a big one. But neither are a good fit at free safety. If the team didn't have crying needs elsewhere, it would be great to draft Malachi and let Rapp and Bishop compete for strong safety, leaving an excellent backup. (Or trade Rapp.) But it's risky to wait to address CB and DT. Tempting, though. I'd love to see an elite secondary.

Maybe they even see a Micah Hyde-type role for him in case he can't contribute on the field: a mentor either way, but a low-cost one in case he's washed.

I do like Amos, and the draft appears to be a lot deeper at DT. Still, Grant looks to me like another Ted Washington, who also went late in the first round.

But Kenneth Grant...😧

I realize it's a bit absurd for me to second-guess Beane, given the enormous amounts of time and resources he pours into researching these players over months and even years. And here I'm scolding him for his choices, drawing on the vast knowledge I gleaned from reading Lindy's Draft Guide and watching highlights on YouTube.