Rd 3, Pick 89 (25): LB Terrell Bernard, Baylor

[nucci]

1 minute ago, Inigo Montoya said:

When it comes to this pick I believe three things;

 

1.   I'll place my trust in Beane, McDermott, and Frazier when it comes to evaluating defensive talent.  I'm sure the organization as a whole has spent 100+ hours looking at this guy and decided he was a fit for their defense.   I trust their considered judgement more than than the opinions of posters  on TBD who have spent a total of 11 minutes "researching"  Terrell Bernard on the internet prior to expounding on the pick.

 

2.  As we have all seen time and time again, making grand pronouncements about a player on draft night is absolutely useless.  Anyone who says they know how a player is going to turn out 8 hours into their NFL career is nuts.  

 

3.  Having said all that, this is a fan message board and I do enjoy reading everyone's opinion and it's fun to throw my own out there too, for what it's worth.  Let's hope he's another Matt Milano.  It looks to me like that's the type of player they were looking for with this pick.

 

🍻

Inigo, always a voice of reason...let me splain...no there is too much , let me sum up

[OldTimer1960]

I was on-board with the Elam pick.  In the 2nd, I can understand taking Cook, but he is really a part-time “specialist” role and the 2nd seems high for that.  The Bernard pick is baffling - a special teams player and maybe sub-package coverage LB?  
 

I think they might be outsmarting themselves trying to fill very specific roles with guys who are too undersized to really be full-time players.

[atlbillsfan1975]

17 minutes ago, YoloinOhio said:

Love his scouting reports. seems like a great chess piece for McDermott 
https://www.profootballnetwork.com/terrel-bernard-baylor-lb-nfl-draft-scouting-report-2022/

 

https://thedraftnetwork.com/player/terrel-bernard/1QB6Cpy1tF

Couple of thoughts come to mind as I read those reports and watch film. 
Can he transition to that strong safety role? Seems like what he does well would only increase from playing off the ball more. 
I listen to Joe Marino of LockedOn Bills religiously and wonder if maybe he was on to something regarding personnel and stoping the run for 2022. Seems to me Bernard is one of those guys who has a great deal of flexibility and doesn’t tip the D’s hand at what scheme they are running. 

[nucci]

8 hours ago, buffblue said:

Won't lie, this is a very disappointing draft so far. It seems the attitude is "We have Josh Allen, so who needs playmakers on offense. And while we're at it, let's draft a 5th rounder in the 3rd."

 

Are we becoming the Packers of the AFC?

we drafted a RB in 2nd round

[LabattBlue]

When the NFLN was showing a replay of the Bills war room for the reaction to Brandt, there didn’t seem to be much of a reaction or laughing except for Beane smiling.  Result of a pick that most of the room was unhappy with?

[YoloinOhio]

8 hours ago, UKBillFan said:

Thank goodness we haven't got a fourth round pick if this is the standard we're picking at three. Reports aren't great at the level we've chosen him at and that's putting it mildly. Did we panic after Tolbert was taken and just stick a pin in a list?

Nfln showed the Bills war film during the Kyle Brandt announcement and they looked pretty calm to me.

[gonzo1105]

12 minutes ago, nucci said:

So after you and your scouting staff watched him play live and spoke to his coaches and teammates along with watching film, you had him going in 6th round?

 

Yup you got it. Again, I know certain people in the scouting community, actual scouts not journalists. I know a scout for the Jets, the Texans, and Bears. I ask their opinions from time to time. Last year , I asked one of them about Melifonwu since most people on here loved him. I was told 3rd to 4th round is likely due to his inconsistency when most people were slotting him at the Bills 1st rounder. I don’t ask them a lot but they will drop me nuggets here and there and if I’m completely missing something I’ll ask. I worked directly with all 3 when I worked as a college recruiter who sat in on weekly recruiting scouting meetings on HS players.

 

What it does allow me to do is try to scout like one. Do I make a lot of mistakes of course but I have a lot more insight on things than the vast majority on here. For the last week I was touting Danny Gray from SMU, most didn’t even know who he was and I told people to watch out for him as a pick much higher and he went 3rd last night. 

 

 

[Simon Says]

8 hours ago, BillsFan130 said:

Calvin Austin still there, was hoping for him.

 

 

Would Austin be redundant after drafting Cook?

[Ayjent]

9 minutes ago, OldTimer1960 said:

I was on-board with the Elam pick.  In the 2nd, I can understand taking Cook, but he is really a part-time “specialist” role and the 2nd seems high for that.  The Bernard pick is baffling - a special teams player and maybe sub-package coverage LB?  
 

I think they might be outsmarting themselves trying to fill very specific roles with guys who are too undersized to really be full-time players.

I think they see Bernard as a guy they can run as the 3rd linebacker and as a third down specialist who they can blitz, have cover, or spy.  I think he gets plenty of snaps if he picks up the scheme.  He seems like a guy that fits what the Bills' philosophy on D is. 

 

Cook is an interesting pick and might be a better all around back than Singletary or Moss.  Definitely a better receiver.  I don't think they are going to resign Singletary or Moss to second contracts.  I liked Damien Pierce a lot better than Cook, but Cook was the feature back for the National Champions and is a little shiftier and more fluid in the passing game than Pierce.  I just liked the physicality of Pierce because I think its wise to get someone to take the tough yardage carries so Josh doesn't take a beating in those situations.

[Simon Says]

8 hours ago, atlbillsfan1975 said:

Well this pick should help calm speculation of what the Bills are going to do with Edmunds.

Why? Not exactly the same type of LB. Think of him as a big nickel or OLB depth, replacement for Klein. I don't see this selection as determining Edmunds' fate, how do you figure?

[YoloinOhio]

2 minutes ago, Georgie said:

Would Austin be redundant after drafting Cook?

I don’t think there is much playing time available for another WR. Between oj Howard and James cook that sucks up targets that were available last year for WR. They will probably take one today though.

[atlbillsfan1975]

5 minutes ago, Georgie said:

Why? Not exactly the same type of LB. Think of him as a big nickel or OLB depth, replacement for Klein. I don't see this selection as determining Edmunds' fate, how do you figure?

I was kidding…

[nucci]

13 minutes ago, gonzo1105 said:

 

Yup you got it. Again, I know certain people in the scouting community, actual scouts not journalists. I know a scout for the Jets, the Texans, and Bears. I ask their opinions from time to time. Last year , I asked one of them about Melifonwu since most people on here loved him. I was told 3rd to 4th round is likely due to his inconsistency when most people were slotting him at the Bills 1st rounder. I don’t ask them a lot but they will drop me nuggets here and there and if I’m completely missing something I’ll ask. I worked directly with all 3 when I worked as a college recruiter who sat in on weekly recruiting scouting meetings on HS players.

 

What it does allow me to do is try to scout like one. Do I make a lot of mistakes of course but I have a lot more insight on things than the vast majority on here. For the last week I was touting Danny Gray from SMU, most didn’t even know who he was and I told people to watch out for him as a pick much higher and he went 3rd last night. 

 

 

ok, sorry for my snarky comment

[OldTimer1960]

5 minutes ago, Ayjent said:

I think they see Bernard as a guy they can run as the 3rd linebacker and as a third down specialist who they can blitz, have cover, or spy.  I think he gets plenty of snaps if he picks up the scheme.  He seems like a guy that fits what the Bills' philosophy on D is. 

 

Cook is an interesting pick and might be a better all around back than Singletary or Moss.  Definitely a better receiver.  I don't think they are going to resign Singletary or Moss to second contracts.  I liked Damien Pierce a lot better than Cook, but Cook was the feature back for the National Champions and is a little shiftier and more fluid in the passing game than Pierce.  I just liked the physicality of Pierce because I think its wise to get someone to take the tough yardage carries so Josh doesn't take a beating in those situations.

I get the Cook pick - I can see where he can be of value and he’ll get touches.  Bernard seems like someone that has no chance ever to compete for a full-time position on defense.  I know that finding starters late in the 3rd is very iffy, but this seems like he was drafted to be a special teamer and role player only.

[LabattBlue]

Were there any reports of this guy even being an early day 3 pick, let alone day 2?  

[Mopreme]

Just now, nucci said:

Why is he considered undersized but Milano is not?

Milano was from Boston College, he gets a pass and was also picked in 6th round where this guy should have been picked too. 

[stevewin]

6 hours ago, folz said:

The way I am seeing this draft is, as this regime has said in the past, "We are building a team, not collecting talent." I think all 3 of these guys fill in to what the team needs (see below).

 

Also, McBeane always looks at what went wrong last year and tries to fix that, as well as keeping up with the Jones'.

 

Well first things first, we have to look at Kansas City and the 13 seconds, and then the upsurging AFC (Bengals, Chargers, Broncos, Raiders, etc.). We are going to face a lot of great QBs over the next couple of years. And where were we weak last year? Defensive speed (particularly over the middle of the field) against fast teams (WRs/TEs), with good QBs.

 

Elam should be an upgrade to Levi and is much faster. And instead of eliminating just one weapon on Tre Island, hopefully (eventually), we can have two shutdown corners, making it tough on two pass catchers. They can play more man and not have to compensate for anyone (Levi or Dane).

 

And this pick (LB Terrell Bernard Pick 89) may look bad because most draft experts will say, "eh he's a tweener" and not rate him as high, knowing that some teams will not want/pick a tweener because of their defensive system. But, as Milano has shown, that type of player fits perfectly in our system. So it might not be a great pick here for another team, but it may be for Buffalo. And as good as Milano is, he has been oft injured and the defense usually takes a big hit/drop when he is out. So, first off, Bernard is insurance for a Milano injury, that our coverage doesn't suffer if he is out.

 

But also, remember when Klein first got some starts and he looked awful? That's because best case scenario, they needed him to be able to cover. But that wasn't his skillset, so they had to adapt things. They don't have to adapt with Bernard. In certain situations against certain teams, they could go with 3 LBs and two of them (Milano and Bernard) are fast and can cover. Does the 13 seconds happen last year if you swap in Elam for Levi and Bernard for Klein? Maybe not...plus we got Von now too! I feel like they are addressing a serious weakness that they saw.

 

And finally with Cook, we now have a legit hr threat (speed-wise) in and coming out of the backfield. This was obviously an area they wanted to upgrade as seen by the attempt at signing McKissic and then adding Duke.

 

I don't know enough about these individual players (I don't watch a lot of college ball) to know if they will all reach the potential the Bills see in them. But the picks do seem to make sense to me when you match up the player's traits and our needs (where the team felt that they needed to get better). And there is nothing wrong with adding speed, speed, and more speed.

 

As for WR, I didn't see that as a big of a need as others to start with, we have a lot of pass catchers (Diggs, Davis, Crowder, McKenzie, Knox, Howard, Kumerow, Singletary) and they just added Cook to the mix who will not only be great for screens and dump offs, but the guy can also line up wide and go deep. I'm not saying they'll use him like that all the time, but maybe enough to keep defenses honest (people said we needed a speed WR to take the top off the defense...maybe between Cook and McKenzie, we have that covered). I mean, how much playing time would a rookie receiver have gotten next year anyhow with our depth chart? I'm really not concerned with Josh not having enough weapons. Look at last year's playoffs...and essentially all we did was swap Crowder for Beasley and added Howard and Cook. To me Sanders is a wash, because he was just taking reps away from Gabe.

 

Just trying to see the rationale to the picks. Go Bills!

I agree with everything here.  Especially the desperation of so many to draft a wr, I don't understand.  We've replaced Beasley with Crowder which is realistically an upgrade - and added Cook as another receiving option/weapon.  Not to mention Davis' surging as legit  (maybe elite) wr talent.  We are probably better off in the receiving game than last year - were people gnashing and screaming last year that our receiving game sucked?

 

Also, I think when you have a full quality well constructed roster the BPA stuff is BS.  That is when you can look at targeted ways to improve certain aspects of your team - even subtly, even if they weren't necessarily 'bad before. 

 

Specific to this player maybe if they had the 4th they would have waited, or maybe they knew other teams were interested (McD knowing the coach so well)  In the end they take a guy they prob have a plan for integrating into their defense to make it better, earlier than media draft boards say but they don't gaf about that

Edited April 30, 2022 by stevewin

[george c]

Potential safety. 

[Juice_32]

7 hours ago, julian said:

After Elam and Cook, there’s no other positions where a draft pick will come in and make any meaningful impact this season.

 

 This might be the deepest roster in the league and Bills are picking late every round, this kid along with the remaining picks are being obtained with traits and grooming in mind.

This is exactly right. For better or worse we were going to come out of this with a CB and an offensive playmaker. They may have wanted one at WR but the board didn’t fall that way so we took an explosive pass catching RB instead.

 

Unless they took the punter, everything after those 2 was going to be depth/grooming guys no matter what, so go with raw traits and see how it plays out.

[CSBill]

8 hours ago, Buffalo Barbarian said:

 

Could be safety

 

 

 

I agree, I think they see him as a hybrid player who could eventually replace Poyer or Hyde in a strong safety type of role.