List of draft players Bills have met with

[HappyDays]

 

[gonzo1105]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On 4/9/2022 at 5:37 PM, gonzo1105 said:

As for the top 30 guys that have been confirmed: 

 

RB James Cook Georgia 

OT Nicholas Petite-Frere Ohio State

TE Cade Otten Washington

RB Isaiah Spiller Texas A&M

TE Isaiah Likely Coastal Carolina

SAF Nick Cross Maryland 

SAF Lewis Cine Georgia 

CB Andrew Booth Clemson

CB Martin Emerson Miss State

OL Sean Rhyan UCLA 

RB Kevin Marks Buffalo(Doesn’t count)

 

10 out of 30. Yes theirs private meetings, workouts etc but that doesn’t mean they were brought in to a 30 visit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add WR John Metchie Alabama and Guard Dylan Parham Memphis 

[HappyDays]

 

[BADOLBILZ]

1 hour ago, gonzo1105 said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add WR John Metchie Alabama and Guard Dylan Parham Memphis 

 

 

I really like Parham. 

 

Shorter so he gets good leverage inside but also has excellent arm length for an interior OL to help in pass pro...........has a lot of starts under his belt in college and is a good athlete so he should have the quick feet to excel if they decide they must run a lot of outside zone.

[DCofNC]

On 4/4/2022 at 10:15 PM, Richard Noggin said:

 

Where's the wisdom in this particular move? Dumping salary to create a gaping roster hole at a premium position doesn't make much sense in a "window" year. So they'd have to use whatever draft assets they acquired to replace Dawkins. And that's no sure thing. 

You always have to have an eye on the future, if you trust your scouting department, an awful lot of guys drafted well past the first round have been good enough to play LT as a rookie.  Money can be moved, but there is a limit to that, so locking a valuable position to a rookie deal is a big thing.  Not saying I would, but I wouldn’t be shocked either.

[sirebors]

On 3/23/2022 at 8:23 PM, Warcodered said:

Unrelated but still draft related I guess just cool if nothing else.

 

 

 

He's got hops 🐇🐇🐇🐰🐰🐰

 

[glazeduck]

15 hours ago, HappyDays said:

 

The Browns looking at RBs, after resigning D'Ernest Johnson, is really interesting. Probably signals they're open -- if not VERY open -- to moving Kareem Hunt...

[YoloinOhio]

 

[GunnerBill]

On 4/12/2022 at 1:35 AM, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

I really like Parham. 

 

Shorter so he gets good leverage inside but also has excellent arm length for an interior OL to help in pass pro...........has a lot of starts under his belt in college and is a good athlete so he should have the quick feet to excel if they decide they must run a lot of outside zone.

 

I really like him too. He seemed to be a bit of a sleeper early on but people have caught up to him now. I do think probably more of a zone blocker and a pass protector than a fit for a team that just wants to run straight ahead and blow the opposition off the ball, but he's gonna be a good pro. 

[DJB]

41 minutes ago, YoloinOhio said:

 

 

[No_Matter_What]

On 4/10/2022 at 1:59 AM, GunnerBill said:

 

It would be interesting to know. The way they operate and some of the things Beane has said in previous years lead me to believe they are a relatively small board team. Maybe not New England small (they regulalry have fewer than 100 players on theirs) but on the smaller side. In that 100-150 range rather than 150-200. 

 

They will also have a bunch of guys who they do not have on the draft board but they already have marked as UDFA guys - sometimes because there is something off-field or injury wise that they are not willing to risk a draft resource on, but as an UDFA it is worth a punt. The big tackle from Washington a couple of years ago was an example of that. He was off the board for injury reasons but as an UDFA they were willing to take a shot. Tyrel Dodson may have been another with some of the off-field stuff. I definitely thought his tape was draftable. 

This sounds really strange to me.

 

I can understand that some teams take some players completely out of their boards due to off-field issues or injury concerns. But that has to be some small number of players. How it is then possible to have less than 150 or even less than 100 players on the board? What are the reasons for taking a player completely of a teams board?

 

I understand that there are scheme issues for example, so if a CB excels in man defense team like Bills may downgrade him a round or two. But it doesn't make sense to delete him off the board completely. 

 

To be more specific - can you look at last years draft at tell me which players selected in first 2 rounds possibly weren't on Bills board at all? Or on Patriots board for that matter? Or make the same thing with this year's top 60 players. For example, I remember you saying that Lindenbaum is very scheme specific guy. But do you think it really means he is not on some teams board? Like a team does not take him even in 4th round if he is somehow available?

 

I always thought that all teams have draft boards consisting of 200+ players.

 

[machine gun kelly]

I just wish we got to see the board after the draft.  It will never happen, but would be fun.

[GunnerBill]

6 minutes ago, No_Matter_What said:

This sounds really strange to me.

 

I can understand that some teams take some players completely out of their boards due to off-field issues or injury concerns. But that has to be some small number of players. How it is then possible to have less than 150 or even less than 100 players on the board? What are the reasons for taking a player completely of a teams board?

 

I understand that there are scheme issues for example, so if a CB excels in man defense team like Bills may downgrade him a round or two. But it doesn't make sense to delete him off the board completely. 

 

To be more specific - can you look at last years draft at tell me which players selected in first 2 rounds possibly weren't on Bills board at all? Or on Patriots board for that matter? Or make the same thing with this year's top 60 players. For example, I remember you saying that Lindenbaum is very scheme specific guy. But do you think it really means he is not on some teams board? Like a team does not take him even in 4th round if he is somehow available?

 

I always thought that all teams have draft boards consisting of 200+ players.

 

 

It depends on level of the scheme mismatch and how established some of the schemes are. The Patriots have been running basically varieties of the same stuff for 20 years. They know exactly what they are looking for an what they value. They would be very confident saying "yea okay this guy is a good player but he isn't for us." The Bills are now going into year 6 of this regime. They have had the same DC for 6 years, the same OC for the previous 4 and have now promoted from within to replace him. Again I have to believe that they are comfortable passing on guys who might be good players for someone else but don't fit their profile. I might be made to look really silly on this but if 4 of the consensus top 5 receivers are gone when the Bills pick and Drake London is the one left I'd still expect them to pass. Not because they don't think Drake can play. But because since the middle of 2018 when they cut Kelvin Benjamin and Andre Holmes and signed McKenzie and brought Foster up from the PS they have demonstrated time and again they value separation over contested catch ability at receiver. He is a guy I suspect the Bills are content to "miss" on if he turns into a stud. I am skeptical he would be on their board. 

 

As for last year's draft the one I said all the way through the process would not be on their board was Asante Samuel. Can't play in zone coverage and actually when the Chargers tried him in some off coverage in zone concepts last year he struggled. I think that was evident on his college tape and if I spotted it you bet Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott did too. Azeez Ojalari was another. He is an outside rusher in a 3-4 defense. Not big enough or stout enough to play defensive end in a 4-3 and not good enough in space to play as a base 4-3 linebacker (even if the Bills played a 4-3, which they rarely do). And then there were 6 Quarterbacks who went in the first two rounds and I bet none of them were on the Bills board either. Like I am not saying they don't have a grade on Trevor Lawrence somewhere on their system. They will have done the work. But there is no point putting him on the board. He is going #1 overall and the Bills have their Quarterback. If suddenly Trevor Lawrence slid to round 3 would the Bills scouts have been ringing around the league going "WTF is going on?" and then maybe Beane thinks "man Trevor Lawrence is round 3 I can't afford not to, I'll make that back in a trade." But the reality is that was never happening so I'd doubt very much that any of those 6 QBs were on their board. That is just off the top of my head and I have got rid of 8 of the top 64 players take already. 

[No_Matter_What]

5 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

It depends on level of the scheme mismatch and how established some of the schemes are. The Patriots have been running basically varieties of the same stuff for 20 years. They know exactly what they are looking for an what they value. They would be very confident saying "yea okay this guy is a good player but he isn't for us." The Bills are now going into year 6 of this regime. They have had the same DC for 6 years, the same OC for the previous 4 and have now promoted from within to replace him. Again I have to believe that they are comfortable passing on guys who might be good players for someone else but don't fit their profile. I might be made to look really silly on this but if 4 of the consensus top 5 receivers are gone when the Bills pick and Drake London is the one left I'd still expect them to pass. Not because they don't think Drake can play. But because since the middle of 2018 when they cut Kelvin Benjamin and Andre Holmes and signed McKenzie and brought Foster up from the PS they have demonstrated time and again they value separation over contested catch ability at receiver. He is a guy I suspect the Bills are content to "miss" on if he turns into a stud. I am skeptical he would be on their board. 

 

As for last year's draft the one I said all the way through the process would not be on their board was Asante Samuel. Can't play in zone coverage and actually when the Chargers tried him in some off coverage in zone concepts last year he struggled. I think that was evident on his college tape and if I spotted it you bet Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott did too. Azeez Ojalari was another. He is an outside rusher in a 3-4 defense. Not big enough or stout enough to play defensive end in a 4-3 and not good enough in space to play as a base 4-3 linebacker (even if the Bills played a 4-3, which they rarely do). And then there were 6 Quarterbacks who went in the first two rounds and I bet none of them were on the Bills board either. Like I am not saying they don't have a grade on Trevor Lawrence somewhere on their system. They will have done the work. But there is no point putting him on the board. He is going #1 overall and the Bills have their Quarterback. If suddenly Trevor Lawrence slid to round 3 would the Bills scouts have been ringing around the league going "WTF is going on?" and then maybe Beane thinks "man Trevor Lawrence is round 3 I can't afford not to, I'll make that back in a trade." But the reality is that was never happening so I'd doubt very much that any of those 6 QBs were on their board. That is just off the top of my head and I have got rid of 8 of the top 64 players take already. 

Thanks for the comprehensive answer.

 

QBs are very specific so thats easy to understand. The key to my question is then really how they treat guy like London/Samuel/Olujari you describe. I understand that they might not be fits or they don't have value for Bills, but I always thought that they are kept somewhere on the board just in case they slip too much and their talents just become too much to pass on.

 

But in reality you are probably right and since something like that doesn't happen and guys just don't slip 2-3 full rounds, it is probably not worth to even think about them being included in the board.

 

However, even with your reasoning, I still find it crazy if Belichick really has less than 100 players on his board

 

When I think about it this could possibly be one of the reasons why Metcalf fell so far. I guess from some reason he just wasn't on many teams' board.

[GunnerBill]

3 minutes ago, No_Matter_What said:

Thanks for the comprehensive answer.

 

QBs are very specific so thats easy to understand. The key to my question is then really how they treat guy like London/Samuel/Olujari you describe. I understand that they might not be fits or they don't have value for Bills, but I always thought that they are kept somewhere on the board just in case they slip too much and their talents just become too much to pass on.

 

But in reality you are probably right and since something like that doesn't happen and guys just don't slip 2-3 full rounds, it is probably not worth to even think about them being included in the board.

 

However, even with your reasoning, I still find it crazy if Belichick really has less than 100 players on his board

 

When I think about it this could possibly be one of the reasons why Metcalf fell so far. I guess from some reason he just wasn't on many teams' board.

 

Metcalf had injury and effort question marks as well as the fact he is not a scheme fit in a lot of schemes. I said it the other day and I stick by it, if he had been drafted by a Shanahan style WCO we would be talking about him now as a bust. He went to the perfect place - Seattle. Who even before he got there were consistently among the league leaders on deep balls throw - especially go routes and fades. 

[BobbyC81]

On 4/9/2022 at 9:23 PM, Sierra Foothills said:

 

Maybe but I'd rather take a guy who's good one on one and try to convert him to zone than visa versa. And I love Booth.

 

 

First of all thank you for updating the list. Also it sure seems that the visits by position reflect what all of us believe are the Bills' biggest needs.

 

 

Have you watched any of the video on Booth or have you only read about him? 

 

 

Well, that's interesting.

I don’t understand meeting with Willis, though.

[GunnerBill]

2 minutes ago, BobbyC81 said:

I don’t understand meeting with Willis, though.

 

Could be any number of reasons. One that I would absolutely not exclude is Beane doing a favour to Joe Schoen. Willis has met with the Giants but he will have been on his best behaviour with the Giants. They have a top 5 pick and don't have their Quarterback. I would not rule out at all that Beane brought him in to see if the kid still comes and behaves like a professional and engages meaningfully with a team who are not going to draft him. It is a bit conspiratorial but that sort of stuff goes on sometimes and Beane and Schoen are very tight. I'd like to see the Giants' full meetings list and see if there might be someone there who could be the other end of that deal. 

[YoloinOhio]

1 hour ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Could be any number of reasons. One that I would absolutely not exclude is Beane doing a favour to Joe Schoen. Willis has met with the Giants but he will have been on his best behaviour with the Giants. They have a top 5 pick and don't have their Quarterback. I would not rule out at all that Beane brought him in to see if the kid still comes and behaves like a professional and engages meaningfully with a team who are not going to draft him. It is a bit conspiratorial but that sort of stuff goes on sometimes and Beane and Schoen are very tight. I'd like to see the Giants' full meetings list and see if there might be someone there who could be the other end of that deal. 

Found it interesting that the giants brought in Breece Hall. Unless they are trading Barkley it makes no sense… or that’s the big switcheroo with Beane

[CapeBreton]

 

I've seen this guy ranked as the top TE in the draft by some analysts. He didn't test great but tape looks really good. Bills seem to be meeting with lots of TEs this year.

[intimidatortj]

On 4/5/2022 at 1:39 PM, njbuff said:

 

I wonder if the Bills are in on Kenneth Walker and Breece Hall?

 

We can all scream to the high heavens if we want either of these guys, but it's obviously most important what McBeane thinks of them.

 

Also remember that Singletary is a UFA next season and they may want their RB on the roster already going into next season.

 

So, how much of a priority is the RB position going into the 2022 draft?

 

It appears by Beane's actions, the Bills are looking at a number of RB prospects.  Including Breece Hall.   I really think it is to be prepared if one of the top guys falls to pick 57.   If Beane thinks Ken Walker Jr is an upgrade to Motor, then I could see him drafting him.   

 

But I don't see him forcing it.  Singletary was half decent in December and January.  If another player/position presents itself at pick 57 that is rated higher than the RB, Beane will go BPA.

 

 

Edited April 14, 2022 by intimidatortj