The NFL Combine concluded this past Monday, and several prospects moved up and down draft boards based on their performance. The Buffalo Bills sent Brandon Beane, Sean McDermott, and more from the front office to attend the combine and meet with several players.
Although the combine generally leads to overreacting and the over-drafting of players (most recently WR John Ross), it holds value when seeing where different teams’ interests lie. For example, the Buffalo Bills met with many wide receivers at the combine, likely indicating that they will pick a wide receiver at some point in the upcoming draft.
We will skip through all the smoke and mirrors that the combine may give us and get right into a post combine mock draft.
While the combine never really seems to have a massive impact on how the Buffalo Bills draft considering they have picked a few players that did not perform great at the combine (A.J. Epenesa and Devin Singletary, to just name a few). The Bills front office spend most of their time meeting with prospects at the combine and making the final touches to their draft board before they are allowed to bring players in for visits.
I used the Mock Draft simulator at Pro Football Network for this article. I also stuck by the usual mock draft contingencies of no trades, using all nine of the Buffalo Bills’ picks.
Because there is nine total draft picks here I will speak a little on my strategy on drafting players for Buffalo here. In Rounds 1-4 I was looking for players to come in on Day 1 and be immediate starters or backups. These players would all be looked at as roster locks and pieces for the future.
In Rounds 5-7 there is much more uncertainty because it is likely that players with the skillsets in these rounds have the talent to make the Buffalo Bills. For example, the Bills cut three draft picks last season at the end of August and were only to retain control of one of them.
In these late rounds, I am looking for players with niche skills that could bring value to the Bills or players that fill positions where they actually have a chance to make the 53-man roster.