After nearly two decades of fairly consistent turnover at head coach and general manager, the Buffalo Bills have had stability at those positions that is rarely found in the NFL. This will be Sean McDermott’s seventh NFL Draft with the Buffalo Bills and Brandon Beane’s sixth as he was hired shortly after the 2017 NFL Draft.
During this period, the Bills have been built up to be a perennial playoff team and one of the top teams in the AFC. Even with the struggles in the playoffs, Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott are still highly regarded in the NFL and the latest example is GM Power Rankings done by Gregg Rosenthal on NFL.com.
The Buffalo Bills were ranked fourth in these rankings and behind only the Philadelphia Eagles, Kansas City Chiefs, and Cincinnati Bengals and one spot ahead of the San Francisco 49ers.
Rosenthal mentions a key concern with the Buffalo Bills’ approach recently
The Buffalo Bills have one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL in Josh Allen. He has shown at times that he can put the team on his back and almost will them to victory.
When teams have great players at key positions, they can sometimes be taken for granted and front offices could overlook adding talent around him. The Bills did trade for Stefon Diggs in 2020 in a big trade that included a first round pick but other than that, they haven’t committed significant investment to that side of the ball.
"That said, the team might need to revisit the relative lack of weight that is put into offensive resources compared with McDermott’s defense. A solid D can only take you so far in this era, and the team’s shortcomings on the offensive line and skill positions around Josh Allen showed up in 2022."
That trend could change this offseason for the Buffalo Bills as they could look to add a veteran like DeAndre Hopkins or even draft a wide receiver in the first round. If the Bills were to draft an offensive player in the first round, it will be only the second offensive player selected in that round during this current regime with Josh Allen being the other.
While there shouldn’t be any discussion of hot seats for either Sean McDermott and Brandon Beane, there is no question this is a pivotal offseason as the Buffalo Bills try to get over that hurdle and to the Super Bowl.
Grading every first round pick in the NFL Draft for the Buffalo Bills current regime
This is Sean McDermott's seventh NFL Draft with the Buffalo Bills and Brandon Beane's sixth. These are grades for each first round pick during that time.