Though I felt Cordy Glenn was not at top 10 pick I thought it was wild how he fell right into the SEC loving Bills laps at the 41st pick in the second round of the draft. You could not have written the script better for the tackle hungry fans out there that were let down that Buffalo did not take a tackle with the 10th pick. Although surprisingly Gilmore seems to be getting a very nice reception in Buffalo. You have two corners that will be 32 this season. What do you do? Though i am not a huge fan of the Stephon Gilmore pick, I understand it. I get it. When the Browns came on the clock at 5 I thought for sure they would take Glenn. I thought for sure “they drafted their running back, got their QB, now they just need a right tackle”. Well the Browns did take a tackle and in a twist of fate it was none other than Mitchell Schwartz out of Cal. I am not going to lie, for a second there I was in disbelief. I am not a huge talent evaluator but i know my football and I have seen Mitchell Schwartz play. Mitchell is not close to the same level of skill Glenn is. We are not tackling about just positioning here, I am talking about the whole package (strength, wing span, footwork).
So Finally i came back to Earth and to find out that the Bills were sitting at the 41st pick with Cordy Glenn in their laps! Wait a second! Cordy Glenn and Johnathan Martin. How the Bills sailed their ship into this perfect storm is beyond my understanding but they both their none the less. In true Buddy Nix fashion (if you have not noticed from the past 2 years he always does this) the card was turned in before the clock started for the Bills. Cordy Glenn was a Buffalo Bill. Nix and Gailey were extremely happy they got there man and #BILLSMAFIA was exctatic! Then the tidal wave came through.
You know the story… Anytime there is a perfect storm out at sea it always ends with a massive tidal wave that takes the ship and crew with it. The Tidal wave’s name is T.J. Graham A wide receiver from N.C. State. The wave hit at the 69th pick in the 3rd round of the NFL Draft. Before i get to far into the Graham pick let me say the kid has wheels. He is one of the fastest kids in the nation. He has plenty of track records and wins to show and prove that. That is all great and everything but what he lacks is productivity on the football field. Sure he had 47 catches for 757 yards and 7 TD’s last season but look at the competition it was against. This kid has always had trouble getting off of press coverage. Before last years breakout year (47 catches and 757 yards was his breakout year) look at his stat lines for the 2 years before last season and you will see that there is almost no production. In fact in a conference with weak corner play already he hardly ever saw a teams number one corner. He is very raw and has A LONG way to. The fact the Nix gave up one of the 7th rounders (a pick at all) to move up to secure his services shows that 1) he didn’t expect Cordy Glenn to be there and 2) They had not planned for that scenario. Nix has stated that he couldn’t believe Glenn was there at 41. After the Glenn pick Buffalo tried their old school approach and sat and waited without trading up with another team. This time it did not work out.
The Bills watched DeVier Posey, Stephen Hill, Alshon Jeffery, Ryan Broyles, and Ruben Randle all come off the board. The crazy thing is 3 of the 6 names I just mentioned the Bills watched teams trade up for. Obviously the Bills did not want to trade up for one of those receivers (which they probably should have given their extra 4th and 5th round selections) so the team panic-ed! They traded an extra 7th away to move up 2 spots to take a receiver that would have most likely been on the board past the 5th round. If he was not on the board past the 5th round then it wasn’t meant to be. Instead the Bills used a very high draft choice and basically threw a pick away to grab a lower rated player than some of the other players that I am confident were higher on their list. “I had him going in the seventh round, He can fly though” was Mike Mayock’s opinion. Mel Kiper and Todd McShay were almost speechless.
Now I get that these are not NFL scouts. I get that they are not in the draft rooms and do not know how each team really ranks every player but when Nix was at the mic at the re-cap presser tonight and had a confused look on his face when he was asked if TJ Graham was the highest rated player on their board when they traded up for him I knew right then that Nix had reached just to fill a need. I believe every Bills fan watching that presser got that vibe from Mr. Nix.
I wish TJ luck and I hope he takes the NFL by storm but I wish it wouldn’t have cost so much! Man, that Cordy Glenn moment was nice though.
Tomorrow we enter the home stretch and finish the draft up. Their are some interesting prospects still available and it should definitely be worth watching. I hope you enjoyed watching the Bills selections today. Lets hope that the 3 players that the Bills have added to the roster the past two days turn out to be exactly what the team needs… Good Players!