Matt Miller: 2020 draft set to have a "historic group" at WR, RB

[Logic]

For those who still feel that Josh Allen needs more weapons or that the running back room needs more youth:


https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2834898-matt-millers-way-too-early-2020-nfl-draft-big-board?share=twitter#slide0


Matt Miller's way-too-early 2020 draft Big Board

The 2020 NFL draft looks like a special one if your favorite team needs a running back or wide receiver. It might be a historic group in those positions once the evaluations are all wrapped up. The running back group is four deep with established, legit stars at the position. Wide receiver is loaded with maybe the best prospect I've ever evaluated (Jerry Jeudy) as well as household names like Tee Higgins, Laviska Shenault, CeeDee Lamb and Donovan Peoples-Jones. 

The rest of the draft? We're waiting to see how it plays out with some key players primed for breakout seasons and the surprise players to jump onto the scene—remember no one had Baker Mayfield or Kyler Murray as No. 1 overall picks the summer before their final seasons—but the early look is that this could be a down year for offensive line, defensive tackle and cornerback.

Ranking players before the college football season has begun can be dangerous, but think of this as a prioritized watch list more than a set list of rankings.

[BisonMan]

"Bills fail to draft WR in 2019, upsetting fans" - typical headline

 

McBeane are smaaaart.

 

Trust the process.......

[Bill from NYC]

10 minutes ago, Logic said:

For those who still feel that Josh Allen needs more weapons or that the running back room needs more youth:


https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2834898-matt-millers-way-too-early-2020-nfl-draft-big-board?share=twitter#slide0


Matt Miller's way-too-early 2020 draft Big Board

The 2020 NFL draft looks like a special one if your favorite team needs a running back or wide receiver. It might be a historic group in those positions once the evaluations are all wrapped up. The running back group is four deep with established, legit stars at the position. Wide receiver is loaded with maybe the best prospect I've ever evaluated (Jerry Jeudy) as well as household names like Tee Higgins, Laviska Shenault, CeeDee Lamb and Donovan Peoples-Jones. 

The rest of the draft? We're waiting to see how it plays out with some key players primed for breakout seasons and the surprise players to jump onto the scene—remember no one had Baker Mayfield or Kyler Murray as No. 1 overall picks the summer before their final seasons—but the early look is that this could be a down year for offensive line, defensive tackle and cornerback.

Ranking players before the college football season has begun can be dangerous, but think of this as a prioritized watch list more than a set list of rankings.

Thanks for this. I have been posting this for weeks. This list was correct to include Devonta Smith as a top 10 receiver. His hands might even be as good as those of Jerry Jeudy.

 

I already consider at least 5 wide receivers to be first round worthy and there are still approx. 116 days until the opener (but who's counting?)

 

[LabattBlue]

Forgot one key word in the title “...MIGHT be a historic group”.   This is the wording the author used in the linked article. 

Edited May 7, 2019 by LabattBlue

[BADOLBILZ]

 

 

For a second I thought it said  "Matt Millen" in the title which would have been concerning......... we know how his WR evals worked out.

 

But yeah it should be a great WR and RB draft and they need to take advantage of that the way they tried to with lineman and TE depth this year.

 

You can't justify not picking a WR in 2018 because of that though because they took a RB in round 3 that probably goes LATE in next years draft.

[Saxum]

34 minutes ago, Logic said:

For those who still feel that Josh Allen needs more weapons or that the running back room needs more youth:


https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2834898-matt-millers-way-too-early-2020-nfl-draft-big-board?share=twitter#slide0


Matt Miller's way-too-early 2020 draft Big Board

The 2020 NFL draft looks like a special one if your favorite team needs a running back or wide receiver. It might be a historic group in those positions once the evaluations are all wrapped up. The running back group is four deep with established, legit stars at the position. Wide receiver is loaded with maybe the best prospect I've ever evaluated (Jerry Jeudy) as well as household names like Tee Higgins, Laviska Shenault, CeeDee Lamb and Donovan Peoples-Jones. 

The rest of the draft? We're waiting to see how it plays out with some key players primed for breakout seasons and the surprise players to jump onto the scene—remember no one had Baker Mayfield or Kyler Murray as No. 1 overall picks the summer before their final seasons—but the early look is that this could be a down year for offensive line, defensive tackle and cornerback.

Ranking players before the college football season has begun can be dangerous, but think of this as a prioritized watch list more than a set list of rankings.

 

Tank for a WR?

[FeelingOnYouboty]

He's not lying. The WR class has 1996 potential.

[Saxum]

15 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

Forgot one key word in the title “...MIGHT be a historic group”.   

 

Yes that word is over used like "The author MIGHT write something that qualifies as a piece of journalism."

[C.Biscuit97]

This is crazy but you could have drafted a receiver this year and you could draft one next year!!! ?

 

and these things are so fluid.  2017 was supposedly a bad qb class and 2018 was a great one.  Well possibly the 2 best qbs were in the 2017 class. 

[Pete]

WR and DE, possibly RB is what this team needs in 2020

[Steve O]

20 minutes ago, C.Biscuit97 said:

This is crazy but you could have drafted a receiver this year and you could draft one next year!!! ?

 

and these things are so fluid.  2017 was supposedly a bad qb class and 2018 was a great one.  Well possibly the 2 best qbs were in the 2017 class. 

That's just insane, stop this nonsense

 

[Chuck Wagon]

2018 - loaded QB class, Beane grabs his QB

2019 - loaded Dline class, Beane grabs what might have been his top DT

2020 - loaded WR / RB class......

 

Almost as if Beane has done some advanced scouting.  A far cry from previous regimes where it felt like our draft pick either had to be from Clemson or was a random dart throw.

[Logic]

32 minutes ago, Limeaid said:

 

Tank for a WR?

Is it too late to take DK Metcalf with the 9th overall pick?

[Logic]

 

26 minutes ago, C.Biscuit97 said:

This is crazy but you could have drafted a receiver this year and you could draft one next year!!! ?

 

and these things are so fluid.  2017 was supposedly a bad qb class and 2018 was a great one.  Well possibly the 2 best qbs were in the 2017 class. 

Foster
Brown 
Beasley
Jones

With those 4 guys likely being locked in at WR and with the Bills set to carry no more than 6 WRs maximum, one of whom will likely be return man Andre Roberts, and with useful players like Ian McKenzie and Duke Williams also vying for playing time....it's crazy to me that people are so put out about the Bills not drafting a WR5. They did, however, go out and get two UDFA WRs in Easley and Sills who, had they been drafted in the 5th round, would have received universal praise from Bills fans.

I get wanting the Bills to draft a WR. I also get why they DIDN'T draft a WR, and I think anyone that got too bent out of shape about it is/was being silly. You can't just take a guy at a position just because you need one, and say value be damned. If you go by the "Best player available" strategy, which Beane has told us again and again he does, you begin to see that the best player left on the board each time the Bills picked was NOT a wide receiver. Go back and look at the Singletary pick and the WRs available at that time. Who should they have picked? Ditto the Knox pick. You could argue that they should've taken a guy in the 5th or 6th round, but at that point the odds that said player would have a substantial impact are low any way. And again, they got what many believed to be 5th/6th round caliber talent at WR via undrafted free agency in Sills and Easley.

 

[FeelingOnYouboty]

Four guys I won't stop talking about for the next 12 months:

 

Ceedee Lamb-WR Oklahoma 6'2 189

Trey Adams-LT Washington 6'7 327

Yatur Gross Matos-DE Penn State 6'5 261

Kenny Willekes-DE Michigan State 6'4 260

[Warcodered]

42 minutes ago, C.Biscuit97 said:

This is crazy but you could have drafted a receiver this year and you could draft one next year!!! ?

 

and these things are so fluid.  2017 was supposedly a bad qb class and 2018 was a great one.  Well possibly the 2 best qbs were in the 2017 class. 

Or and I know this sounds crazy but they focused on getting positions they needed with the strength of the draft class like DL, OL, and TE. I mean who after they'd addressed those spots could they of taken that they'd have a reasonable certainty they'd make the starting roster.

[Logic]

3 minutes ago, Warcodered said:

Or and I know this sounds crazy but they focused on getting positions they needed with the strength of the draft class like DL, OL, and TE. I mean who after they'd addressed those spots could they of taken that they'd have a reasonable certainty they'd make the starting roster.

People always overlook "rosterability" when talking about drafting players.

You should draft players that you think will actually make the roster. 

As I mentioned above, with four WR spots probably already taken and with Andre Roberts likely to take the 6th spot as a return specialist, it leaves probably ONE spot open. The Bills ALREADY have Ian McKenzie (former 5th round pick, has gadget versatility, and who the staff clearly likes) and Duke Williams (CFL's leading WR last year) vying for that spot. What are the odds that a 4th or 5th round WR would have beaten out these two guys? Last year, the Bills drafted two WRs just because they needed them: Ray Ray McCloud and Austin Proehl. How did that work out? 

You have to draft roster-able guys.

Edited May 7, 2019 by Logic

[Buffalo_Stampede]

Looking at his top 32 it's definitely a historic year for WR names.

[BillsVet]

25 minutes ago, Logic said:

Foster
Brown 
Beasley
Jones

With those 4 guys likely being locked in at WR and with the Bills set to carry no more than 6 WRs maximum, one of whom will likely be return man Andre Roberts, and with useful players like Ian McKenzie and Duke Williams also vying for playing time....it's crazy to me that people are so put out about the Bills not drafting a WR5. They did, however, go out and get two UDFA WRs in Easley and Sills who, had they been drafted in the 5th round, would have received universal praise from Bills fans.

I get wanting the Bills to draft a WR. I also get why they DIDN'T draft a WR, and I think anyone that got too bent out of shape about it is/was being silly. You can't just take a guy at a position just because you need one, and say value be damned. If you go by the "Best player available" strategy, which Beane has told us again and again he does, you begin to see that the best player left on the board each time the Bills picked was NOT a wide receiver. Go back and look at the Singletary pick and the WRs available at that time. Who should they have picked? Ditto the Knox pick. You could argue that they should've taken a guy in the 5th or 6th round, but at that point the odds that said player would have a substantial impact are low any way. And again, they got what many believed to be 5th/6th round caliber talent at WR via undrafted free agency in Sills and Easley.

On one hand, you're highlighting the signing of UDFAs and then talking about 5th or 6th rounders not likely having a substantial impact.

 

Foster may continue to improve. Zay could start producing when it matters and develop better chemistry with Allen.  Brown and Beasley may play like they did with previous teams in their respective roles. 

 

The question is whether or not McBeane were confident in their WR group coming out of the draft.  Apparently they are.  We're going to see if they were right, but history being what it is, McBeane haven't shown a propensity for evaluating let alone developing offensive skill position talent.  

 

Lot of "ifs" and "hopefullys." 

 

 

[Buffalo_Stampede]

I'm hoping we get lucky and Foster becomes a #1.