Buffalo Bills Positional Needs Heading Into Draft
By Dennis Moody
The Secondary & Punter
Let’s take a look at the Bills secondary first and then we’ll look at the Bills situation at punter.
Cornerback – The Bills top two cornerbacks are set and they might be the best tandem in the league. Stephon Gilmore and Ronald Darby are those players. Gilmore is a bit of a concern because he is on the last year of his deal so Buffalo could consider adding a cornerback as an insurance policy in case he leaves. Buffalo tends to draft corners every year anyway which is smart in the pass happy NFL. Their other corners include Nickell Robey who is their primary nickel corner and a few other players. The others are Mario Butler, Sterling Moore, Bud Noel, Sammy Seamster, and Corey White. The team recently released cornerback Cam Thomas.
Safety – Safety is another uncertain position for the Bills. Corey Graham will be starting as one of their safeties. He did an admiral job leading the team in tackles last season but was less effective against the pass. His performance started to drop off at the end of the season and it’s something to watch heading into 2016.
Their other projected starter, Aaron Williams, will be coming back from a neck injury and is uncertain how it will react once he starts hitting people. If Williams is unable to continue his career, safety would all of the sudden become one of the Bills top needs.
Buffalo did sign free-agent Robert Blanton but he would be a low-end starter at best and would be better in a reserve role. The other safeties on the roster include Jonathan Dowling, Jonathan Meeks, and Duke Williams. Buffalo should consider adding another player at the position during the draft as an insurance policy if Williams cannot play.
Punter – The Bills have one of the better punters in the league in Colton Schmidt. They will not be adding a punter in this year’s draft.
So that’s the recap of the roster by position heading into the draft. As you can see there are so many positions where one could make an argument that the Bills need a starter or more depth. It should be very entertaining to see how they go about the draft trying to fill all of these needs. Good thing they have eight picks this year!