Welcome back to the Buffalo Bread Podcast. We have our post -draft analysis episode as we do every year. The Buffalo Bills did something that I think you and I, Dan, would agree they haven't done in a number of years, which was basically follow the exact script of what most talking heads, media members, people who care about ranking positional need put out there as the menu of things that they needed to get done. They basically checked every box in the exact order that most
people had it, which doesn't happen. I mean, it doesn't happen as far as I can recall back to ever since Brandon Bean took the job. I think that many people in Bill's Mafia and Bill's media were frustrated often with the best player available mentality or my board rankings said this when the Bills would repeatedly pass on something that everybody agreed they needed. Where are
you at with the overall draft feeling, sir? Thought this was his best draft and I'm not even saying that because I'm afraid he's gonna want to come on this pod and yell at us Whatever criticism we have. I honestly thought he did a great job with the strap This was and I put this out on a lot of our socials Bill's mafia. Do how did you feel was this his best draft since 2018 and
and I got a lot of Yes, it absolutely was. And it wasn't just because he was checking the boxes of what all of us amateur mock drafters wanted. I think for the first time JJ saw a vision. for this draft plan. There was not a lot of luxury picks or meandering picks. We are way past that phase where we can take like a luxury second round linebacker or draft our fourth running back in the second round in the fourth consecutive
year. Right. We are at a point now where the the salary cap is what it is with Joss's extension with some of these homegrown talent extensions they've given to guys like Rousseau and Shakir. This was as locked in and focused a draft strategy as I've seen for bean and unlike. how we've criticized this this organization before where it doesn't seem like there's a fit or there's a long term plan or vision for a lot of players they bring
on. I can literally look at every single one of these guys that they drafted and say, oh, I see where they fit, not just for the 2025 season, but in the long term developmental arc of the organization and their role that I can see where the bills hope they are going to end up. So overall, I was very, very satisfied. And I don't even care that they didn't draft a receiver. Right.
Well, I mean, and starting there on that note, we they signed a receiver, even after Brandon Bean's tirade on WGR about how everyone's always bitching with this and that because you're bitching about Josh Allen and now you're bitching about we don't got a wide receiver. We're the highest scoring NFL or highest scoring team in team history. We're the best team in the league if you count
the postseason and scoring. He did he did all that and then the same day they had Elijah Moore formerly of the Jets and formerly of the the Cleveland Browns in for a workout and two days later he signed so Hey, let me ask you this over under beans been the the GM of the team since 2018 right? Yeah, yeah, so 2018 draft was his first draft. He started the summer 2017. Yep Yep. Yep. So 2017 is 2025, eight years. He drafted
Josh in 2018. Okay. So over under seven years, he's been waiting to pull out the, you guys wanted Josh Wilson. You guys are bitching. Yeah. Oh yeah. No, I bet. You know he's had that thing. He pulled out the hashtag wrong Josh. Yeah. He, he like, he. He's had that thing in his pocket. And he's he probably watches that video clip of the Bills fan, like with his hands on his face like, no, like just to get him juiced up in the morning and ready to go during draft season.
Dude, I can picture Brandon being in a mirror, being like, you got this. You're a big baller bean. You can do this because like puts on his aviator sunglasses before he walks out. And then a second pair of your sunglasses just to pull him off in dramatic fashion. Yeah. So good. Yeah. So, so let's start with the most recent news
is of course that signing. Elijah Moore, I think that we both remember him from the 2021 draft coming out when I think that was that the season that the bills traded their first round pick for Stefan Diggs? Feels like it. The twenty twenty draft. Oh, twenty twenty draft. OK, so the year after they traded for Stefan Biggs, Elijah Moore came out from Ole Miss. He is he was a second round pick for the Jets that year. Second pick for the Jets, five, ten, one hundred and eighty
pounds. Considered a burner from the slot. Usually split his snaps with Cleveland over the past two seasons, half in the slot and half outside
receiver. He. feels a little bit like a Curtis Samuel duplicate in terms of his skill set he's good at crossing routes he's good he's got long speed but he hasn't been one of those like big play you know big play receivers that you think of who's like always getting those 60 70 yard touchdown bombs so he also hasn't played with absolutely he hasn't played with anything but absolute trash at quarterback his entire career
And so it's an interesting dynamic. I, having seen Marques Valdez scantling, and who's the other guy that used to be on Pittsburgh that was here in the offseason cut? Chase Claypool. Yeah, Chase Claypool. Having seen some of those veteran flyers on players who haven't stuck, I'm not super hopeful about this signing, but
I think that it essentially... As you mentioned in text earlier, it sort of invalidates the fired up rant that Bean went on by saying, you guys are wrong, and then immediately doing the thing that everyone was hoping he would do. I don't know if it invalidates the whole thing fully.
I do think... Listen, we have been as critical as anyone of Brandon Bean's draft strategy a couple of years ago We dedicated an entire bod our entire podcast to an alternate universe of Brandon Bean picks right, where the pick that he actually made, we found someone better that was still available on the board at that time.
And so I get his frustration. I mean, let's remember where we were when he took over this organization with Sean McDermott, like we were in the throes of the drought or the drought had just ended right in 2017. And, you know, it times were times were rough for Bill's mafia. I mean, you and I at the time when it was still 16 game schedule, we were just ready to get six and 10 tattoos, because that's just where we were at every season.
Not always good enough to draft a franchise changing blue chip talent and but just good enough to like, keep ourselves at this very middling pace. Then he came in and they've transformed the culture. They've transformed the roster What they are though is they're the victims of their their the own expectations that they have set We are now expecting this level of success We're we're no longer talking about if Josh Allen is healthy will you know? Can we make the playoffs its will
the can we is now? Can we win a Super Bowl in this current window where Josh Allen, who is a supreme athlete, but a very violent player who puts his body through a lot. Are we taking maximum advantage of the window we have with this transcendent generational player? And I think those are fair questions. And I think those questions are exactly at the bar that being a McDermott have raised for this organization and quite frankly, for this community. So I think
they're fair asks. I think what is, I think what is unfair is we can't lose our objectivity. Objectively speaking, regardless of how you feel about a couple of the trade ups, he knocked the straft out of the park, right? And I think the Elijah Moore signing, while not a total concession, I think is in line with the type of G aggressive GM style we've seen with Brandon Bean. Other than the QB room, which we can all agree is 100 % set, he is always, always in the rumor mill
about he called check on this player. He called a check on a trade for this guy. He's having a conversation with this organization about someone that might be available. And he's always, to your point earlier about the MVS signing, the Chase Claypool signing. He's always looking to
improve on and build the room. He never feels like he is fully satisfied with where a room is at and it's only resources a lot of times or time because the season eventually has to start and you got to put a roster on the field that really limit him. Like he is an aggressive wheeling and dealing GM and he's always looking to improve. So I think the Elijah Moore thing. Not a total concession. I think it's more part and parcel with what we have come to expect with
Brandon Bean. He is happy with the wide receiver room, but there was a guy out there that had, you know, has field tilting speed in a lot of ways, has much better acceleration than Curtis Samuel. And he had the opportunity to add him to his room, to the wide receiver room at a low risk, high reward contract. This is a big baller bean move if there ever was one. JJ, what do you think about Moore's potential impact on the field? I picked up on you saying he feels like
Curtis Samuel competition. And that's kind of where I feel like a lot of Bill's fans and Bill's media are at. But let me posit something different to you. Are we sure Josh Palmer is coming in and immediately one of the top three guys in that room with Coleman and with Shakir? Because
Shakir, listen, he's got the exact same. Physical profile as a Stefan Diggs who was our our Z receiver our fee our field side of the receiver guy and played on the outside I know Shakira's best when you can get him non and get him free of coverage without a whole lot of contact and press and that's why he's so effective in the slot But he's got the speed the profile the change of direction to play on the outside Are we not sure
that the alignments gonna be Keon Coleman? Khalil Shakir on the outside in certain packages, not all the time. And then we see a mix of Curtis Samuel and Elijah Moore in the slot. I mean, we were not sure. I think that we also need to acknowledge the fact that Keon Coleman might actually be better from the slot because he got pressed, especially after he came back from the injury. Right. Like great point. There is a lot for Joe Brady to do with this receiver core.
and it seems like there's not enough slots available because there's not enough slots available in the composition of their receiver room. There's nobody who's that like absolute dog outside receiver in the room. Everybody could use a little bit of help not getting pressed by a strong outside six foot two corner, right? And so with that, I think to your point, you're probably going to see that. You're probably going to see all kinds of combinations, especially in training
camp and preseason. We're probably going to see Double slot packages with Keon Coleman and Khalil Shakir on the slots with Elijah Moore and Curtis Samuelson on the outside Then another, you know series it might be Josh Palmer on the outside or Josh Palmer on the slot like The variability I think is a superpower of this team with the wide receivers but the actual skill set kind of dampens that superpower because nobody I don't I don't Think unless Keon Coleman takes a pretty
substantive step forward. I don't think any of them can really be open even when covered or doubled or pressed. You know, like an absolute alpha dog, you know, outside receiver, like Jamar Chase or something. We know there's no Jamar Chase on this field, on this team. And they've
done that by design. And I think that they recognize that the Eagles have, you know, a 1 and 1B wide receiving tandem, but... for the last several seasons, the Super Bowl championship team has, it's not been a requirement that you absolutely have to have an Alpha One outside receiver. And so I think that they're going to be variable, that everybody eats is, I mean, I think, wasn't Josh Allen recently on like a press, whatever, wearing everybody eats hat, like trademarked.
So yeah, that's not going away. And I think you're onto something with the fact that Khalil Shakir, Trying to develop his release package on the outside is something we'll see this season. I hope he does awesome I don't have any doubt for
his work ethic. I don't think the money is gonna change him I think he wants to be the best and could Really, you know cuz he is so shifty and he is so good in contact I think that it's a matter of like, you know, don't don't say he can't do it could just cuz he never has Um, and so that's, that's a thing, but I do think also there's a possibility that Keon Coleman is, is tried out in the slot a little bit more to give him some opportunity to get, get open on those
quick slants or quick outs, um, when he was struggling
to do that late in the season, especially. Yeah, absolutely so another fun another fun toy for Joe Brady to have the wide receiver room in this pass catcher room and Maybe if it doesn't go the way of MVS or chase claypool another fun weapon for Josh to throw to as well So I will I will say this in the in the two seasons of Elijah Moore Playing for the Jets after his rookie and second season before he was traded Even with Zach Wilson who was abysmal at quarterback I
remember seeing Elijah Moore on third and longs and on some like pretty big time downs Making a catch and converting and being frustrated. He's just kind of being frustrated. Oh, that's a good receiver like I have those sense like I've I can remember those things because we see so many we watch and rewatch so many Jets games that I can I have a good sense of the player from his early time in the league and from that
time into Cleveland. In Cleveland, he'd never drop below 100 targets for a season and he never dropped below 50, you know, 55 catches in a season. So He's like a 600, 550 type yardage receiver in a year. His yards per reception dropped substantially at Cleveland because again, probably the quarterback play. Wasn't scoring buckets all over the place, but he was a somewhat reliably first down machine as a second or third receiver option. Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, it doesn't hurt to have these options heading into camp for sure. For the Tyrell shavers hive out there. This doesn't mean shavers is not going to make the roster like we're all still hoping that that dude ends up on there. So yeah. All right, man. Let's let's work it back. Let's talk about the draft again. thought being nailed the draft at a variety of different levels. I know you and I are gonna gonna pick some nets about some of the prospects that he brought in.
But overall, solid draft, great vision. You just want to start at the top of the board and work our way down? Absolutely. And in what was, you know, a lot of preference busting or, or wish casting busting, Brandon being stuck and picked. at 30. He did not trade up. He did not trade back. And that's rare for him in the first round.
So he stuck and picked. And I think that largely he stuck in place and picked because the way that the first round developed, almost everyone would agree that the Buffalo Bills biggest need was a starting caliber outside cornerback. And other than Travis Hunter going second overall, there was not a single cornerback taken until 20. Jada Baron who was largely, you know two on the board still what a steal that was to go Yeah to go all the way down to 20 to get Jada
Baron. The Broncos got him AFC is gonna regret. Yeah happen and But all that led to a situation where I think it was like eight tackle or defensive linemen went in the first 29 picks and a couple of safeties. So it was really a situation where the way the board fell, the Buffalo Bills biggest number one need was there with the third best corner kind of unanimously on the board. Absolutely. And last year, JJ, they passed up on taking the fastest player on the draft board and Xavier
worthy. This year, he fell in their laps at 30 and they took the fastest player in the draft, Mad Max Hairston. So, JJ, I mean, kind of ad nauseam. Everyone has had the same pros and cons about this kid. I think the perception is that because of his speed, he's primarily a man corner. And now I see a lot on Bill's threads. I'm not on Bill's Twitter anymore. I see a lot on Bill's Bill's mafia threads that, oh, yeah, finally, we're changing our philosophy and we're going
to play more man. And while I think more man, you and I both agree, has to be in the cards for this bill squad. Harrison is a zone cover corner, his fluidity in his hips, his change of direction, his acceleration. And yes, that burst of speed. And he's got this amazing sense, this amazing ability to read routes. Dude is a turno was a turnover machine at Kentucky as a result of all of those traits. And he has a perfect fit for the majority zone scheme that
the bills are going to play. And he's to me, based on his size, I like to see him bulk up a little bit more based on his size, a perfect compliment. He's not a tweener. He has an outside corner that can play on the other side of the field from Christian Benford. They had a clear need, a clear hole at that spot, and they filled it with, again, consensus top three, top four cornerback in this draft, and undisputedly the fastest player in the draft. You and I talked
about some concerns about his size profile. He's not a great tackler, though he was dealing with a shoulder injury we found out through much of last season and his last season at Kentucky. From a personality standpoint, the Buffalo Bills win their first overall pick again. Keon Coleman set NFL media on fire last season with his introductory
press conference. Mad Max didn't even wait till the press conference to do that the videos of him tapping up guys in the green room Every single one that came through to take their walk up to the stage at the draft the bills I think not only got a supreme athlete that fits their skills, but they got a guy who fits the culture as well Yeah, absolutely and I think that the other big thing about that that pick that Really kind of matches up is again the athletic profile We've
been saying for ages that the Bills need to be faster on defense that they get absolutely you know taking advantage of on D when they when they aren't able to keep up with the offenses they're playing against and then Then we have Maxwell Harrison come in and there's no question anymore about that He's got recovery speed that we haven't seen since Trey white kind of started in the in the league and he is a able to, to your point, play on zone much better than I think
that we've seen. Oh yeah. Yeah. And, and on top of that, I think that also he, uh, he has a, uh, an amazing skill set when staring into the backfield. He had six interceptions. Three of them returned for touchdowns. So that speed came to play when he was at Kentucky through it through in the SEC, which is an incredibly competitive class. Yeah, absolutely. Now, very excited to have this dude on the team, a profile that athletically we have needed for a very, very long time on
the squad. Round two, JJ Buffalo Bills trade up to get. What I think we you and I agree were one and one be as far as positional needs went which was to finally address the defensive line More specifically in the interior defensive line a defensive tackle finding TJ Sanders who listen, I loved the pick I think He after day two was the one that most bills fans were like, oh, but he's not the he's not the big to gap in, run, run stuffing, huge bodied guy we need next to
Ed Oliver. But I'll tell you, dude, I love the pick immediately. Reason being is, yes, the Buffalo Bills struggled in several key situations, stopping the run and having a big bodied interior defensive linemen to help eat, eat up blocks would have helped with that for sure. But the Buffalo Bills also struggled in another regard, and that was in situations of third down and five or more yards. They really struggled to get pressure on opposing QBs and clear passing situations
last year. TJ Sanders next to Ed Oliver with AJ Epinezza. And Greg Rousseau coming off the edge fixes, or at least his skill set, fixes and addresses a lot of those needs as well. The Buffalo Bills have to get off the field in those obvious passing situations. And now I feel like they've got an interior presence with both Sanders and Oliver. Both are guys who prefer to win with speed as opposed to violence and physicality. But they've got two guys that can penetrate quickly,
compress pockets, get quick pressure. get QBs off their platform and create the disruption the Bills didn't have last season in those situations. I loved this pick the minute they made it. Yeah, I did as well. And I think that, you know, it told us something about the Bills defensive philosophy that, you know, some people have pointed to even last year. Teron Johnson explaining that in the Miami game, they wanted them to run. They were.
Basically, okay with them running even though they rolled up a bunch of yards Because they were they were inviting them to run the ball. The Bills don't care about running the ball it's it's not the explosive play generator of the passing game and This kind of proved it to me to use their second highest resource in the draft
on what again He followed the script. It was their second highest need was a defensive tackle, but not the kind of defensive tackle I think a lot of Bills mafia were out here looking for everybody with the recency bias of watching the Philadelphia Eagles absolutely dismantle the Kansas City Chiefs is like, okay, we need our giant plugging 340 350 pound defensive tackle. Where's our Jalen Carter? Yeah, where's our Jalen Carter? Or Jordan? Yeah, Jordan Davis, Jalen
Carter. Yeah, our our you know, Plugger from a Georgia or an Alabama or somebody But the Bills kind of stuck to what they believed because two picks later Alfred Collins who's way more that profile the run stuffing giant body Went to the to the Niners, which I love that player, too But they basically said TJ Sanders who has way more of a pass rush profile way more of an upside He has a plan. He has more active hands. He's more athletic Is is the choice and so and I don't
hate it. I mean, I think both of us talked about how The Bills defense flaw at times is that they don't keep their undersized small linebackers clean. I I don't think that they care about that I think they're basically like we are just going to try to have as many chaos makers Who with up with plus athleticism on that side of the ball? And we're confident that we're gonna make more negative plays than you will get explosive plays. It's all about that differential for them.
And this is a positive, you know, in that regard of, you know, Ed Oliver, TJ Sanders both play on the opposite side of the line of scrimmage in the opponent's backfield. And I think that that was their goal with the pick. They actually traded with Chicago twice in this draft. And for this one, it was a matter of trading up from 56 to 41. and giving up 60, what I thought was actually impressive, they traded their 62 down
to 71 or 72. And so they ended up trading down by 10 slots and up by 20 or so slots, which I think is kind of an excellent value, right? To be able to go up in the second round, down into the third, so they have a two and a three. Prior they had two twos and then they swapped later round picks, day three picks. And so I think that kind of balance and value was really good in terms of, if you look at the actual trade value chart, it was the bills basically earned
10 points or something on it. So as even as even could be. absolutely and again they got their guy and they didn't wait for the rush to start to happen like they have been want to do for so long they needed a wide receiver last year the rush on wide receivers was they were in the midst of it they decided to set it out Few years before that, we all, of course, remember the Kyre Elam year, where all of a sudden DBs are
flying off the board. This time around, they were not going to wait for that big Russian interior lineman. They got ahead of it because after that, as you noted, Collins and a bunch of other guys that we had on our board fell off and went to other teams. So the Bills jumped up. They were aggressive. They got their guy. They if nothing else. They got equal value with Chicago for the assets and the players that they ended up swapping
in the in these deals. And overall, again, a move that I love to see in addition to the roster that I love as well, especially with how Buffalo wants to rotate through their defensive linemen. Nobody playing more than than 50 or 60 percent of the snaps. They now have a guy in the rotation in key situations. They can call in to help shore up what was a massive weakness for this team last year. I loved it. JJ, I also love their third round. Oh, my gosh. I know you just go
with this one. I know this is your Christmas. You go land in Jackson and like to get him in the third round. I think it was a steal I think he's going to he's the player in this draft and I think we even we might even talked about him Did we choose him on the mock with our friends of the pod? I think we might have yeah, we might have And we might have chosen with the first or second pick. I think he was I think he was
a second rounder. Yeah. To get him at seventy two in the third round edge from Arkansas was an absolute steal. He his athletic profile has been compared to. And I think it's a great it's a great comparison is Max Crosby because he has a surprising amount of dip and bend around the
edge that he shouldn't have for that size. But he's also like six six and 270 pounds so he's a large large and athletic player who really kind of showed out throughout his college career at Arkansas and I do think that he He will show to be a steal in this draft because the way I've described it to people who've asked me because they know I'm a big nerd for this stuff is If you like AJ Appaneza on the splash plays you will love Landon Jackson because he's AJ Appaneza,
but consistent Like and you could even see that in AJ Vanessa's tape at all at Iowa right like that he was inconsistent in his impact in his play and so Landon Jackson getting a second player Opposite Greg Russo because I actually think he's going to wrestle away that starting job from Who do we just sign Joey Bosa Joey Bosa.
Yeah, I don't think, I think they're going to very comfortably slide into having Landon Jackson take early snaps and then either Having him rotate inside for some pass rushes or bringing Joey Bosa in for those big third downs Because I think that Landon Jackson offers you pass rush in early downs while also being an absolute, you know stalwart edge setter on run downs and Saving some snaps from Joey Bosa's body. So I'm just
I love this pick. I think he's going to build my face gonna love him He's got this massive work ethic. He's got a huge hot motor. He is an athlete. He is huge He looks the part. Yeah cat I can't wait to see this kid take the field and what I loved about Sanders and Jackson going back to back to the bills is They can they are they can do their core job responsibilities,
right? they want Sanders to be able to play that three tech or play next to add Oliver in passing situations and and Get pressure on the opposing QB and they want Jackson to do the same thing, but they are both plus defenders Against the run as well. So the bills Not forgetting that this was a weakness for them last year as well. Also trying to address that run defense. But as you so eloquently put it at the beginning of the pod, they're doing it within their scheme
and within their philosophy. I mean, dude, some of the athletes that they have that they brought on board in this draft are really going to change the dynamic and the ability and the versatility of this particular defense. Which is a great segue for me because I loved this next pick and you didn't like it. Fourth round pick, pick number 109. Again, another trade up for the Buffalo Bills. Deon Walker, defensive tackle out of Kentucky. This is a guy who we had talked about previously
on the pod. We had already departed on what our view of this particular, this particular prospect was. He's also a guy who I put out on a lot of our socials after the TJ Sanders pick. I was like, listen, double dip. very likely in the cards for day three. Keep an eye on these three guys. And Dan Walker was at the top of that list. So, J .J., why don't you start with your feelings about this particular draft, Beck? I do not like it. You and a lot of Bill's mafia, my friend.
I do not like it. And I do not like it specifically because he's got a lot of variability that worries
me in the position. in the fact that he was incredibly productive to the point where even Brandon Bean said that the ratings they had on him would make him a likely first -rounder if he would have come out of school last year, but then he came back this year and played so inconsistently and had such terrible tape that he slips to the fourth round in the eyes of most NFL -talented evaluators, and just me watching line play, because I love line play, I was like, ooh, this guy has... terrible
mechanics it's come out since then that he was dealing with a like a cracked vertebrae in his back and I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that you can't keep your pad level low if you're sort of have a broken back and the example you gave before we came on and started recording was Spencer Brown right like we both wrote this guy off after two seasons because we didn't think he had what it would take what it takes and then you find out that he was playing
with a broken back or Fracturing his back for most of his second season comes on his third season and absolutely knocks it out of the park So I'm I'm willing to of course, you know, he's on the team now So I'm rooting for Deon Walker to be an absolute steal in the fourth round But other players like Ty Robinson out of Nebraska and CJ West out of Indiana Going after Deon Walker.
I am I'm afraid Those two picks will come back to to prove that they were the better choices at that point in time and that Dion Walker's you know mechanics weren't just sloppy because he was Injured but rather they were sloppy because he sort of has make sloppy mechanics and then his Previous season in 2023 was sort of a you know flash -in -the -pan outlier of his normal production Yeah, his biggest comp by most draft evaluators is Jordan Phillips And the Bills have
complained, or Bills fans have complained, and even the Bills essentially letting him walk several times in free agency have complained that Jordan Phillips has a giant body but doesn't play like it. And that was, that's the thing I see in Deion Walker as well. He's 6 '7", 330, but he's not dominant physically. And he can, he's more athletic than you expect somebody that size to be. But he still gets blown off the ball in double teams.
He gets pushed out of his gap. He gets his body turned and he's too inconsistent with holding at the point of attack for me to really trust him on early downs. And listen, I went back and I rewatched some of his twenty twenty three games and pad level has consistently been a problem for the kid because he's he's huge. He's his pro physical comp is a mountain right at that size. So yes, pad level technique, all these things that the Bills can coach into him. I.
It's a fourth round pick. I get there were, and this was maybe the only pick where there were other guys on the board that Bill's Mafia were just kind of yearning for, right? That has been a regular thing for us and, and past Straves this year. I think it was maybe with this pick, which is why he's so, he's so polarizing. He is versatile. in the way that the Bills like
their defensive lineman to be versatile. He's big bodied, but he does have, if you look at his 2023 tape, pass rush juice that would allow him to also play the three tech and rotate positions with at Oliver. So he gives them a little bit of versatility along the line, which they like also to team captain starting in his sophomore year as well. I know listen, we're having the Dwayne Carter conversation all over again, where the bills are looking for a lot of these leadership
traits. But it is important to this culture to bring in somebody that can't it doesn't just contribute on the field, but can contribute to the locker room culture as well. His versatility, his physical profile, and dude. Seven and a half
sacks to one sack. I get is a massive dip But if you can somehow get him healthy and reclaim even a snapshot of that 20 -23 stat line Let's say he's even half of that player in this rookie year I would take two and a half three sacks from a rotational interior defensive lineman that can also Gobble up double teams and get pressure on the run and and hold the hold the point of attack in the run game as well He is a project and I would argue that of the bills
premium picks He's the biggest project by far, but he's a size profile. They've needed he's a piece They've been trying to find and free agency for a really really long time and just haven't been able to fill that gap Now they get their hands on this kid with this physical profile. They can mold him in their own image, and they don't need to necessarily rush him right away to play because of the depth that is now in this
defensive line room. Well, and I think to something I'll say is like Marcus West getting his hands on Dion Walker and working with him, the defensive line coach, Jason Reber, which the assistant defensive line coach, they're going to be able to coach him better than Kentucky. In a lot of ways, Kentucky is a solid program in the SEC, but not never like a supremely competitive program. It's burgeoning. It's on the way up. But burgeoning programs lose good coordinators to better programs.
This is correct. The burgeoning programs are the feeder schools for coaching talent. to the powerhouses. We love you, Kentucky. Yes, we love you, Kentucky. And we are so happy you have prepared Max Hairston and Deion Walker to these middling levels that we will turn into superstars. Jesus, Kentucky catching strays tonight. I'm sorry. But what I'll say is like Ryan Nielsen has been seen as like a, you know, cornerback savant at coaching the man press and those sorts of defensive
systems. But he also has, through his coaching career, had some experience with bringing along some supreme talents on the line. And so adding him as a senior defensive assistant and these, you know, three defensive linemen in the picks two, three and four of this draft. I have a lot of hope that they're going to get the best out
of all of these guys. And, you know, I think that just having seen some of the media stuff, having heard Max Hairston talk about Deon Walker, I think that some of that makes me much more hopeful than I was just watching his film. Yeah, without a doubt. Listen, it's so it's definitely OK to not like the pick. There are plenty of Buffalo Bills picks we have not liked before. I like they have drafted so few interior defensive
linemen in Brandon Bean's tenure. I love the fact that not only are they digging into this positional group, but like what they've done with the wide receiver room, like what they've done with the offensive line room, they're getting a bunch of different profiles that are going to allow them to hopefully I'm not, you know, the man thing versus the zone thing. I'm not
really here for that conversation. The Bills are going to be his own team, but at least maybe be a little bit more multiple in their looks upfront. This is the thing that two seasons ago, they did so well and created so much confusion for opposing QBs and they just could not do it this season. Do a lot to the personnel builds on this defensive roster and a lot of the attrition that they had You know forced upon themselves
to get the cap right now. They're bringing that versatility back They're bringing this variety of athletic profiles back. I like again I like the vision and I like what they're trying to
build so I'm okay with this All right, JJ. Let's wrap it up here two fifth round picks for the Buffalo Bills six round pick Two six round picks and then of course a seventh round pick Jordan Hancock DB out of Ohio State Jackson Hawes, I think everybody's favorite day three pick for the Buffalo Bills tight end out of Georgia Tech. Dorian Strong, who people are already saying is the Christian Benford of this particular draft
for the Bills, CB out of Virginia Tech. Chase Lunt, tackle at UConn, likely gonna shift over to guard due to his T -Rex sized arms, but we'll see. And then, listen Bills Mafia, we got a wide receiver in this draft, and his name is Kayden Prather, wide receiver out of Maryland with pick number 240. JJ, any one or a couple of these guys that you wanna particularly highlight here as we wrap up? Well, I think that I can do rapid fire, kind of lightning round on all of them.
Jordan Hancock, I think that they said he's going to come in as a nickel slash safety, and I think that that's useful in a draft where they did choose a CB. Pick the first pick and then they chose a CB again Dorian strong who has actually Astounded was still available in round six because in a lot of mock drafts and you know me I was doing like 150 of those damn things before this
draft. I was picking you I was picking Dorian strong and like the fourth or fifth round usually and I was surprised when he was falling to the fifth So I think it's just one of those deals where you get uncommon value late It was the first pick in the in the sixth round. So that's notable as well. It's not their 30th pick But you get uncommon value late because of the value of some of the other positions. The big men in this draft I think pushed a lot of the little
men down. So all the defensive ends all the defensive tackles that were taken really created a situation. We're getting even getting Jordan Hancock, you know Compensatory pick in the fifth round at 34 Awesome value was an incredible value. So those two I think I'm really excited about Jackson Hawes already endearing to Bill's mafia. He's going to He's gonna remind you of I'm trying to think of the tight end that was playing with Josh Allen early Lee Evan No, Lee. What was his
name? They're like big basically if six offensive linemen every long -term veteran in the league. I want to say I will say Lee Smith. It was Lee Smith. Yeah So Lee Smith, who was like a lot of he was like kind of the heart and the soul of an early Josh Allen offense briefly and was here for some of the drought years. And so I think that Lee Smith comp to it's like a younger because this dude can catch. He has some juice with with catching the football, but he makes
his hay absolutely punishing people. And I think that's going to really show. Well, having somebody like Hawes line up next to Alec Anderson on big sets is It's like, what is even happening on that side of the line? It's just an absolute massacre. I'm very excited. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
I love what they can do in red with red zone packages now, too Listen the bills already have so many fun red zone package weapons and their repertoire Not the least of which is the Josh Allen cube QB designed run But now with a guy like Hawes, even though he doesn't have a ton of receiving upside I mean you could see a situation where he's the new Dawson's leak and a lot of those situations They come out in that super
jumbo package. They do their best Baltimore Ravens impression rollout and 13 personnel And all of a sudden it's Jackson Hawes the guy who'd least expect leaking out for a red zone TD from Josh I just I love it. I love the fact that he wants to put people on the ground every time he puts his hands on him He's gonna be a beast in the run blocking game And I think he's gonna fit in well with bills mafia love this as a day three
pick for the bills Yeah, absolutely. And I think that the other piece is like, he's an inline titan built for the dirty stuff, but then he also can offer, he can offer those little, you know, like five yards and turn around, reliable hands. offset, you know, um, safety valve for
Josh Allen. I'm excited about that too. Uh, and then my final, you know, the final comments, Chase Lund, Kaden Brather, anyone who's like looking at these guys and being like, Ooh, we have some, yeah, they're six and seventh rounders picked at 30th and 24th in their respective rounds. Um, they'll be lucky if they make the track practice squad. Chase Lund, I think we're being worked
with Aaron Kroemer. If he doesn't get sniped by another team, he played tackle at Connecticut or Yukon, but I think that he's Probably a guard in the league because his arms are way too short to play tackle and then I fell so They said they're gonna start him a tackle, but that's what they say with every tackle They draft to just see if they caught something uncommon and then they slide them in the guard where they expected them to go Anyway, yeah, I think that's exactly what
this kid's future is gonna be But again, I like the fact that they are not afraid to draft a project in Cromer They trust I mean they're really becoming offensive line you which If you and I were having this conversation five or six years ago and to Brandon Beans tenure, there's no way we would have believed it. But now they are absolutely proficient at taking a guy like this and developing him into an asset. So, yeah, man. No. Yeah, please.
Oh, I was going to finish with Prather. Kaden Prather is like a literal possession style receiver, 6 '4", 200 pound. They're probably going to see if he can fill some of the Matt Collins role of blocking outside receiver and special teamer and has a lot of special teams kind of experience. So I think that that's probably what they're looking at there is if he makes the roster at all, it's because he becomes a four -phase special teamer and can be depended on in that sort of
Matt Collins role. Yeah, absolutely. JJ closing thoughts here. Favorite player, let's go there. Favorite player out of the surprisingly nine picks that the Buffalo Bills made. I didn't think they were gonna make nearly this many picks this season. I didn't either. It's hard. I'll tell you what my number one, the tie of two players is right now and I'll probably talk myself into a real answer. Max Hairston and Landon Jackson.
I think that... Both I can't really pick one over the other because they're both absolute
critical needs For this team. I think that they both fill they actually fill a hole in the roster that the bills don't have one and of course being a speedy corner who can play in literally every system and Hopefully work work his way into being a shut down type of corner and then Landon Jackson who You might say they have his his prototype and Greg Rousseau but he has a little bit more bend on the edge, like I mentioned before when I compared him to Max Crosby than Greg Russo,
and he's not as long as Greg Russo. I think that that's, it gives you a little bit more juice on the pass rush. And so those two, and I'm gonna, I think I'm gonna stick with Max Harrison just because it's such a supreme talent at an incredible value late in the round, the third best kind of unanimous corner in this draft. Yeah, and this is listen. This is no shade at Kyra Elam, but like this is a palette cleanser from that.
Yeah, right. It feels like it's accomplishing what they hoped that pick would it would do. You know he's obviously got to take the field. He's got to produce. He's got to develop, but it already already feels like a better fit than the Elam pick was. And again, this was an eyes wide open draft for Brandon Bean. I think my favorite player. I talked myself into TJ Sanders early on as I was getting into social media squibbles with everybody about their questioning the pick.
I just want the Buffalo Bills to be able to shut down third and seven. Like if I've got to watch another season of them gifting teams third and eight, third and nine, after being so good and so disciplined on the first two downs, I might lose my mind. And to me, TJ Sanders, in addition to a guy like Hairston, but TJ Sanders is a guy who can really really rectify that weakness to me in a lot of key situations. He just brings juice that only really Ed Oliver does in the
pass rush from that interior. So I'm stoked about it, absolutely. Awesome. And that's your favorite, TJ Sanders. Yeah, I gotta go with TJ Sanders. I love the pic. I understand people thought it was a reach. Sorry, Mel Kuiper Jr. I'm not as smart as you. But again, for him, maybe more than anybody, I see the vision. I just see... how they're gonna use them, when they're gonna use them, the exact wrong that they're trying to write by inserting him into the lineup. So,
love it. Love everything about it. So, good job, Bean. Again, we don't care you didn't pick a wide receiver. We're totally happy with the wide receiver Rumez is. Yeah, we're good. We're good, man. I'm fine because also, you know, let's see if freaking Dalton Kincaid can actually be a threat in this offense. That's the thing. And yeah, listen, man, going back to the Shakir point. We are waiting for Cole. Everyone is saying the same thing. Coleman's gotta take the next step.
Kincaid's gotta take the next step. Those things are true. I do not feel like Khalil Shakir's ceiling in this offense has been fully realized yet. He 54 % of the snap share last year. Matt Collins, who we love him, except when we play him twice here in New England, we will always
love Matt Collins. 60 % of the snap share. Oh a six percent more than than Khalil Shakir start implementing this dude more and in a more versatile situation And I think he's got another gear he can hit for this team Yeah, they've never been they've never been punished for giving him more snaps seriously his whole career Yeah, his whole career every time they give him more. He provides more. Yes Yeah, the more you put in the more
you get out of Khalil Shakir. Yeah, absolutely uh let's i mean let's just briefly run through our undrafted free agents these are guys who are like we you know it's cool the bills had a great on them they took them after the draft they negotiate those things for anybody who's like oh why didn't they get sean dole act it's like dude they the players after the draft literally get to choose where they go like stop acting as if there's some automatic pipeline from ub
to buffalo um even because of cam lewis and others, Buffalo Joe Andreessen. There has been because they have familiarity, but they have familiarity combined with other teams not wanting those players. So in this situation, you know, the Rams were offering him something better, which is a system that he will thrive in more than the bill system and maybe more money. So whatever it was, he went to the Rams. So shut your trapper. We're about to do our own Brandon Bean rant man. I
know, right? Sometimes I'm just like, come on, just take five seconds and understand how the actual thing works before you criticize. Who's the most intriguing UDFA sighting that you've seen so far for the both? Probably Jacob Bayer, Arkansas State, interior lineman. He is like
a pretty epic mullet. I saw that. yeah that's one of his greatest features but then also like it just i don't know the watching just the very because it's like arkansas state so all you can see is like a couple highlight cut -ups that somebody probably in his immediate family put on youtube um and he just looks like he's got like the tenacity he reminds me a lot of like an alex anderson or um you know uh spencer brown if he was a not a giant you know weird outsized
human being Right. So he's got that, that fire. So he's one. And then Daryl Porter Jr, a CB out of Miami, who's like really undersized, but played outside. Um, and also has a really good kind of, um, not underwhelming athleticism, but an incredible anticipation of route concepts. Um, and sort of a preternatural ability to know where the ball's going to go. Um, very cerebral. Yeah. How about you? I would actually kind of agree
with you on both of those picks. Any time I see the Buffalo Bills sign an offensive lineman, UDFA, draft a guy, I just assume they are going to develop him into a pro ready player. So whenever I see them add to the lineman room, I'm like,
yep. That guy's gonna that guy's gonna see snaps that guy's gonna have some trade value down the road if we decide to use them or that guy's gonna fill in for a for an injury situation like I just have that level of confidence that Everybody they touch will turn into a pro ready offensive lineman They some others of note they they got Hayden Harris a defensive end for Montana who had nine and a half sacks last year three force fumbles two fumble recoveries and interception
Six five two fifty five kind of Jerry Hughes
sized dude who? Could do some things but again most likely practice squad LSU defensive tackle Paris shand who's another Kind of penetrating three tech six four two seventy five It's a long way to the roster for this guy But yeah, he is somebody who I thought had a draftable grade as well Yeah, no bills found value at every single level including after the draft again master class by being Even if even if half of these guys don't pan out which they tend not to not
gonna crush Bean at all for For the plan the implementation the patience in a lot of ways that he showed Waiting for the board and many key cases to fall to him and then as always finding Incredible day three value with some of the guys he brought on and with two punters on the roster currently both drafted punters that failed at their previous teams the Bills also invited Buffalo punter Ethan ethane Dwayne to rookie minicamp. So there may be three punters on the roster after
rookie minicamp. They have one spot left on the 90 man. Incredible. That's incredible. And it'd be amazing if it was a punter battle that was duking it out for that final spot. I just love it. Love it. Love everything about it, JJ. And of course, as always, I've loved potting with you. Oh, yeah. Yeah, man. So for all of you listening at home, thanks for joining us as always. Like, share, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Google Apple and Spotify. And as always, go Bills. Go Bills.