The 2026 NFL Draft will be here before we know it, and Buffalo Bills fans can’t wait after sitting through a relatively quiet free agency period. While general manager Brandon Beane can add some under-the-radar depth pieces in the meantime, Bills Mafia knows that the early stages of the draft are his next true opportunity to make a difference for the 2026 season.
Of course, Beane doesn’t have a ton of picks to work with and is currently without a second-round pick, having spent it on wide receiver D.J. Moore in the trade with Chicago. Since that trade went through, Bills Mafia has pondered the feasibility of potentially moving out of the first round as well to stock up on more picks.
ESPN’s Field Yates recently published his latest mock draft, and it had the Bills doing just that while still finding a key prospect to add to the defense.
Buffalo Bills trade down in ESPN mock draft while watching promising talent land with AFC rivals
In Yates’ mock draft, the Bills were projected to trade out of the first round by sending their No. 26-overall selection to the Arizona Cardinals, who moved up for Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson. In return, the Bills received the Cardinals’ second-round pick at No. 34, an extra third-round pick at No. 65, and a 2027 third-round pick.
With the No. 34 pick in hand, Yates saw the Bills take the player they likely could have had at No. 26 in Georgia linebacker C.J. Allen, a popular mock selection for the Bills this offseason.
As a prospect, Bills Mafia is growing familiar with Allen, who may lack the athletic prowess of the class’s top off-ball backers, but has the high football IQ and positive tendencies you’d expect from a leader of Kirby Smart’s defense in Athens. There’s at least some risk to weigh in selecting the 21-year-old in the second round as opposed to the first, where Buffalo would have the fifth-year option available to them.
Another sore spot for some Bills fans is who the Bills passed over in this mock, that being Texas A&M edge rusher Cashius Howell, who was mocked to Kansas City at No. 29 overall. Bills fans in the camp of pursuing a top pass rusher in this class would have a hard time justifying a trade back for a linebacker, a position with comparatively less value.
Another Aggie star, KC Concepcion, went another pick later to the rival Dolphins at pick No. 30, so the same would be said for Bills fans in the camp of continuing to breathe new life into the wide receiver room.
Yates’ mock draft didn’t extend beyond the second round, so the path that Buffalo could take following such a trade can be experimented with in a deeper mock draft that we’ll explore soon here at BuffaLowDown as the draft approaches.
Nonetheless, the Bills would be taking a bit of a gamble at the top of the draft to ensure they have the resources to fill out the depth of the roster in the middle rounds instead of watching them pass by. Currently, the Bills have just two top-100 picks, and with depth needs across the defense and the offensive line, they’ll be hard-pressed to give each position ample attention without a trade such as the one Yates projected in his mock draft.
That said, it’s hard to imagine that Beane and the Bills will pass up on Howell or Concepcion if they are still on the board at No. 26, even if it’s just as difficult to pass up on the collection of picks they could grab from a team like Arizona looking to get back into the bottom of the first round.