Buffalo Bills 2023 NFL Draft: Prospects and games to watch in Week 10
Which players and games should the Buffalo Bills be watching this weekend in college football?
Week 10 of the College football season is upon us and the playoff picture is taking shape. With only a limited amount of games left prospects are trying to put their best foot forward to leave a lasting impression as we head into the draft preparation this offseason.
Let’s take a look at some prospects and one game you should have your eye on this weekend and how those prospects potentially would fit with the Buffalo Bills.
Buffalo Bills 2023 NFL Draft: Prospects and games to watch in Week 10
Player #1: Drew Sanders, ILB/OLB/EDGE Arkansas
#7 LSU @ Arkansas, 12 PM
Drew Sanders is one of the most intriguing defensive prospects in this year’s draft. After spending his first two seasons at the University of Alabama, Sanders transferred to Arkansas for a bigger role to showcase his skillset. While Sanders showed flashes at Alabama many expected to see a really solid player at Arkansas. Although Arkansas season has been slightly disappointing from a team standpoint Sanders has exceeded all expectations and made himself into a star.
Sanders is such a unique prospect because of his positional versatility. It was not too long ago that we saw Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons taken early in the draft as a linebacker only for the Dallas Cowboys to unearth his potential as one of the best pass rushers in the league. No Sanders is not quite the athlete that Parsons was coming out of college but he sure shows some similar traits.
Sanders has elite size at 6-5, 232 lbs, and uses his size all over the field. Lining up at nearly every linebacker position Sanders has the size to be a threat stopping the run, the pass, and rushing the passer. Sanders will occasionally line up on the edge as a standing pass rusher and he has shown tons of success getting to the quarterback.
Through nine games Sanders has 74 tackles, 11 TFL, 7.5 Sacks, 3 PD, and 3 FF. An impressive stat line for the Junior linebacker. In theory, Sanders sounds like the ideal player. Can play several positions and does them all well. However, there are concerns about Sanders at the pro level. First, Sanders is a little lanky and could struggle a lot with NFL size and power. Sanders also is prone to missing tackles and a lot of this can be due to poor pursuit angles and lazy arm tackling at times. While both of these concerns are traits you can fix through player development they are two red flags for teams.
Sanders would be an interesting fit on the Buffalo Bills’ defense. The Bills just drafted linebacker Terrel Bernard in last year’s draft as the main backup to Matt Milano and Tremaine Edmunds.
There is a little uncertainty if Tremaine Edmunds will be re-signed or if the Buffalo Bills even have enough money to bring him back. Sanders is likely going in the top two rounds of the draft so the Bills would be effectively using a high draft pick on a player who may not play right away.
However, with just hints of what Micah Parsons is in the NFL in Sanders’ game, there may be enough potential and interest to get a skillset like that on the Bills’ defense.