Bills 2021 Draft - Overall Assessment

[SCBills]

6 minutes ago, Process said:

I hope this is just talk and we are not really going to keep Addison. What the heck is the plan, to rotate 6 DEs? And spend 3 high draft picks on DEs in two years just to have them play 20-25% of snaps? 

 

Cut the fat and move on. Let these young guns get some meaningful playing time. Hughes and even the guy we signed from CAR are enough of a vet presence.

 

I could see us keeping 6, with Johnson as the man out.  

I can’t stand having Addison on this team, but...

 

Hughes and Addison are solely outside rushers.   Epenesa, Rousseau, Basham and Obada can all play inside/outside.  If we’re rushing DE’s from inside on passing downs, we’ll want quite a few on the active roster.  
 

Could also put Harry on the block, with only Star, Oliver and Butler as locks.  
 

Edited May 1, 2021 by SCBills

[Aussie Joe]

7 minutes ago, Process said:

I hope this is just talk and we are not really going to keep Addison. What the heck is the plan, to rotate 6 DEs? And spend 3 high draft picks on DEs in two years just to have them play 20-25% of snaps? 

 

Cut the fat and move on. Let these young guns get some meaningful playing time. Hughes and even the guy we signed from CAR are enough of a vet presence.

 

 

Just can’t see them having him take a pay cut and then cutting or trading him... just doesn’t seem like what they would do...
 

 

Edited May 1, 2021 by Aussie Joe

[PauleeeWalnuts]

I gave it a C, they needed to get faster on offense and didn't. Knox as their starting TE and Singletary as their feature back will get them no closer to beating the Chiefs. They drafted for the future, but they still need pieces to put them over the top. They still need a RB, TE, DT, CB and burner WR

[Don Otreply]

Regardless of what the fans say/like, Beane did exactly what he said he was gonna do. He and Sean had a plan an they followed through on it, in a year or two when our older vets on the D & O lines are gone or near gone these quality picks will make paying Josh a whole hell of a lot easier to do, and still have quality players lined up to insure we are not a flash in the pan two year window team. Long term success is the goal. 

[Rock-A-Bye Beasley]

And even though I liked the draft I would have taken Teven Jenkins at 30. Joseph Ossai in 2nd, and try to trade up for Terrance Marshall in 3rd. 

[Doc]

30 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

I think on corner we were just badly positioned all draft really. We were always at the point where we'd have been reaching down the board until that spot in the 6th when maybe I'd have gone with a different guy but finally the value lined up.

 

They could have traded-down at any time to get into better value position for a CB.  But I have to change my opinion since I was under the impression that Wildgoodchase was a S.  They still should have drafted a NT though.

Edited May 1, 2021 by Doc

[BillsFan130]

8 minutes ago, whorlnut said:

I’ve said all along...taking a corner early isn’t a priority to Beane. McD took Tre in the first and he has his bonafide number one. Mcd’s history shows that he plugs a late rounder in at CB2 and he’s able to coach them up.

I understand the history which is why I'm not surprised they didn't take one.

 

But I still don't agree with the strategy.

 

CB2, amongst pass rush of course were big issues last year

Edited May 1, 2021 by BillsFan130

[Meatloaf63]

42 minutes ago, McBean said:

We needed to add offensive playmakers. We didn’t. That’s what will beat KC.

 

The fact Dawson Knox and Singletary will start next year makes me puke.

 

Draft could end up being a home run if Greg and Boogie make an impact in their rookie years.

We had a top 3 offense and the defense let us down in the AFC Championship so what are you talking about?

[SCBills]

1 minute ago, Don Otreply said:

Regardless of what the fans say/like, Beane did exactly what he said he was gonna do. He and Sean had a plan an they followed through on it, in a year or two when our older vets on the D & O lines are gone or near gone these quality picks will make paying Josh a whole hell of a lot easier to do, and still have quality players lined up to insure we are not a flash in the pan two year window team. Long term success is the goal. 

I 100% agree with the vision to be a perennial contender.  I cringe when teams load up for a short window.  As a fan, I want sustained success and a shot to win it every year.  
 

We clearly have that view.  
 

I just think Josh deserves another piece.  
 

We’re hoping Knox and the running game develop, while other contenders already have those elements in place.  

 

I will say, on Gabe Davis last year and maybe Marquez Stevenson this year, we feel somewhat reminiscent to those Steelers teams that developed these mid-late round WR’s and out of nowhere they were studs.   

[Boxcar]

32 minutes ago, Gen2 said:

One of the pitfalls of having a good team is there isn't a single player we could have drafted where the fan base would say "NOW we can contend for the Super Bowl". We already have those players in place. We get robbed of picking the over hyped "name player" and are regulated to picking backup strength or potential type of players and it's hard to get excited about those type of picks.

 

It wasn't fancy or glitzy, as a matter of fact it was kind of boring, but I'm comfortable in the fact that Beane and McD have a plan and they're working toward their end goal, and our scouting department has more expertise in recognizing talent in their little toenail than I will ever have. 

Not trying to single anyone out, but I don't know how Spencer Brown doesn't count as an exciting pick. I think the top 3 were all very exciting. We didn't grab any middle of the road, high floor guys. You don't win with those. You need elite talent, you have an amazing coaching staff. Naturally, you take guys with insane athletic ability and trust your coaching to mold them into what they need to be. I thought a pick like Kwity Paye would be boring. He'll be a fine player, but you pretty much know what you're getting. Rousseau? Brown? Sky is the limit. They could be elite players or complete busts. That is the complete opposite of boring.

[Logic]

Here's Logic's (not too serious) 2021 Draft Review:

Beane kicked off his "You must be this tall to ride this ride" draft theme by taking a stretched out Gumby doll space alien that only played one quarter of one game of college football. People were mixed on the kid's potential, until they heard that his nickname was Groot, then everybody was instantly all-in.



Next up, everyone was excited because a bunch of good corners, receivers, and defensive tackles had fallen to the Bills in the second round, and much to everyone's delight, Beane drafted a......defensive end?! Wait, ANOTHER defensive end? What the WHAT?! This can't be right. We just drafted one, and this seems like something from the department of redundancy department, and...wait, he goes by the name "Boogie"? Carry on.



After that, everyone came down off the ledge because hey, a bunch of players at need positions and fast skill guys were still around in the third, so maybe now this draft would come back down to earth and start fulfilling everyone's expectations for immediate improvement. Let's see....Beane took a....AN OFFENSIVE TACKLE?!?! No no no, this can't be. This is highly illogical. This doesn't make any sense. "Psssst. He's 6'9" and he literally broke the RAS scoring system and he just jumped through a table". Oh, well in that case, how many of his jerseys should I order?



Long wait through round four, but here comes round five, and we have two picks, so things are going to be exciting. After exclusively drafting linemen, maybe NOW Beane will be adding some speedy speedsters. So long as he doesn't take a.....HE TOOK ANOTHER OFFENSIVE TACKLE? THIS CAN'T BE! I need a drink. At least we have another fifth round pi....what's that? We don't, all of a sudden? Make that drink a double.



Okay okay. It's been a long few days, but we've got three sixes. Mark of the beast. What d'ya got, Beane-o? Fast receiver? YESSS! In the long, storied tradition of over-hyping late round receivers, I'm already convinced this guy will be a Hall of Famer. Plus he's gonna propel us past the Chiefs. Speed, speed, speed, I love speed.

What next? A safety I've never heard of? That's fine. We always take late round safeties I've never heard of. Meeks, Neal, Johnson, this guy. Will he technically play football for the Bills? Yes. Will you even know if he does or doesn't? Probably not.

Last pick in the sixth, make it count. THE GUY'S NAME IS WILDGOOSE?! I can already hear Berman now: "There they go running after the speedy corner, a Wildgoose chase. WHOOOOP!!!".



"Beane, listen. That last guy's name was pretty crazy. Got anything a little more...I dunno....vanilla...that I can write on the next card?"...."How about Jack Anderson?"...."Perfect".




And that was it in a nutshell. We got much taller. We took a Boogie and a Groot and a lunatic cattle farmer and a fast guy and a Wildgoose. On a scale of "crapshoot" to "bunch of lottery tickets", I give it a "who the hell knows?" 

Edited May 1, 2021 by Logic

[WideNine]

3 hours ago, eball said:

 

Well said.  Cracks me up reading the complainers around here.  This is the most competent, professional front office the Bills have EVER had — and yes, I include the Polian era.

 

I am not seeing a ton of complainers, unless a B or B+ is complaining. If any draft actually lives up to a B grade it is usually a pretty darn good draft when you think of how many prospects wash out a few years in across the league.

 

I thought they took a few luxury picks and missed a few BPAs at positions of need, but Beane was not working with a ton of picks from the get-go and made the calls he did. I think we can safely say that we are still waiting on Oliver, Edmunds, and Ford to reach that impact potential you expect from where they were taken so some healthy skepticism is not unwarranted.

 

Beane hit on Allen and that is the biggest feather in his cap right now. He also has shown a solid ability to pick up key FA's when his staff struggled finding the right WRs to fit what they were trying to do on offense Bease in the slot, Brown when we needed to stretch the field, and a #1 receiver in Diggs. They also overpaid for a defensive line that did not get it done last year.

 

It is a good front office - solid, that hit on more than they miss and are willing to grow and learn.

 

 

 

Edited May 2, 2021 by WideNine

[SCBills]

9 minutes ago, WideNine said:

 

I am not seeing a ton of complainers, unless a B or B+ is complaining. If any draft actually lives up to a B grade it is usually a pretty darn good draft when you think of how many prospects wash out a few years in across the league.

 

I thought they took a few luxury picks and missed a few BPAs at positions of need, but Beane was not working with a ton of picks from the get-go and made the calls he did. I think we can safely say that we are still waiting on Oliver, Edmunds, and Ford to reach that impact potential you expect from where they were taken so some healthy skepticism is not unwarranted.

 

Beane hit on Allen and that is the biggest feather in his cap right now. He also has shown a solid ability to pick up key FA's when his staff struggled finding the right WRs to fit what they were trying to do on offense Bease in the slot, Brown when we needed to stretch the field, and a #1 receiver in Diggs. They also overpaid for a defensive line that did not get it done last year.

 

It is a good front office - solid that hits more than they miss and are willing to grow and learn.

 

 

 

I don’t know if I’m considered a complainer, but I think the ones of us who may/may not fall into that category are simply saying why this draft is a B, and not an A.   
 

The C or lower graders seem to be few and far in-between.  
 

I gave us a B, with a retroactive grading clause that if drafting 2 DE’s knocks Addison off this team, it’s a revised A. 
 

I just would’ve loved Elijah Moore AND Marquez Stevenson.  Etienne wasn’t available and after Pitts, there were no Tight End upgrades.  Diggs-Moore-Beasley-Sanders-Davis-Stevenson would’ve been disgusting, and our WR room would be set for years.  
 

Edited May 1, 2021 by SCBills

[Turk71]

B-  Hopefully I'll think it is a lot better in a couple years. Basically every pick is a project. I'm not sure if any of them contribute much this year. The DEs will rotate in for some opportunities I'm sure, but that's about it. 

7 minutes ago, John from Riverside said:

what was actually missing from this team last year that caused us to go home one game away from the Super Bowl it really fell in the trenches lack of being able to run the ball when we had to lack of making plays on a QB and getting them off of their spot when we had to those were the two biggest things that stopped our seasonBeane went into this draft and addressed all of that and addressed it multiple times then you have to look at what is going to happen in the future we are about to pay a unicorn QB 40,000,000+ a year things are going to get tighter we need to be able to come up with quality line play without being big players in free agency we need to be able to do this and not have the quality of the plate drop off because we can’t afford big ticket free agents on our lines we have players that are on our lines that are getting older injuries happen all of that being recognized what our greatest weaknesses were and address them so how can you say that we did not get better well other teams got significantly better we got better at the things that we needed to get better atWhile other teams that were picking higher than us and draft selection we’re getting name players that people loved in their mocks beane was going about his business of improving the team in the short term and long term

Actually, they did not address the run blocking issues at all. Who among the draft picks will contribute this year?  Doyle's weakness is poor run blocking. Brown is also a better pass protector than run blocker. The Bills tackles were fine last year anyway and these new tackles are not for this year, they were drafted for their freaky potential down the road. 

  The Doyle choice is the real puzzler to me. Another project tackle like the one you just took the pick before. There was good talent still available and I very highly doubt he was BPA on anyone's board at that moment. I'm not saying they made a bad choice, just puzzling. These guys are far from infallible but they definitely deserve the benefit of the doubt after what they've accomplished so far. I am cautiously optimistic.

  This could turn out to be an amazing draft, obviously only time will tell.

[delirious]

My only disappointment from this draft is that we're so far heading into 2021 season with Star and Harrison Phillips at 1 tech. I wish they would have spent 1 pick on a big 1 tech. 

 

[beerme1]

A+ for me. They did it their way and didn't listen to anyone here. I trust the process.

[NewEra]

28 minutes ago, Victory Formation said:

Star will be our main 1T, when he needs a breather, Oliver will be our 1T and behind him we’re probably looking at Harry vs Butler vs Zimmer. Rousseau and Boogie will see lots of snaps at 3T. We may keep an extra end.

And what about next year?  This draft is all about the future.  Every player we drafted will be a back up this year.  What’s the difference if it’s a backup 1T?  Our other 1Ts stink

Edited May 1, 2021 by NewEra

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

2 Giants on D to play Edge 

2 Giants on O to block 

Speed receiver 

6 ft DB. 
A prospect at Guard. He’s only 6’ 4”

 

 

[JaCrispy]

16 minutes ago, ngbills said:

Agree - reminds of the 2016 draft. Lawson, Ragland, Washington and more...

Don’t forget 2019... that has the potential to be one of the all time busts as a draft (Oliver, Ford, Singletary, Knox)...woof, that’s rough, so far!

[Turk71]

Just now, beerme1 said:

A+ for me. They did it their way and didn't listen to anyone here. I trust the process.

How do you know they didn't listen to anyone here? You'd be surprised to find out who's on this board.😎