Buffalo Bills early 2024 NFL draft preview

The Buffalo Bills 2023 season is over and now it's time to begin looking ahead to the 2024 offseason, which means salary cap discussions, free agency, and of course the NFL Draft. The draft has become my favorite part of the offseason schedule. It's a time for mock drafts, player breakdowns and of course, applying silly draft grades on players that we have no idea how they fare at the NFL level.

All the film watching, NFL Combine scores, and stat breakdowns will never be enough to predict who will be good, who will be great, and who will be a bust. It's a lot of fun to do, and I'm looking forward to getting into those mock drafts and player profiles. Be on the lookout for those in the coming days and weeks over the next few months, as I start to dive into those mocks and player profiles. I'll add this though, I do hope the Bills go with a wide receiver in round one; however, I can see a scenario where they go defensive line too, either edge or interior.

Other positions needed for the Bills are at linebacker and both safety positions. In fact, a lot of fans probably don't want to hear this but expect a defensive heavy draft. But when we look at the Bills' offensive side of the ball, we don't see too many holes. The team seems set at running back with James Cook, Ty Johnson, and likely Nyheim Hines. I can see Hines potentially getting released to save cap space though and the team spending a late draft pick on an RB. However, Brandon Beane has already said Hines will be a big part of their plans in 2024. Regardless, I expect more than half of this year's selections to be on the defensive side.

The NFL Draft is scheduled to take place on April 25 - 27 and the Bills currently have nine picks with a tenth one to be added later, due to the compensatory pick that Buffalo will receive from the loss of Tremaine Edmunds. Where in the third round that pick will be, we don't know yet, and the position outside of the first round, we don't know for sure until the other team's compensatory picks are awarded. The only pick set in stone at this point is the 28th overall pick in the first round; however, you can use several mock draft simulators and you'll find the overall pick number varies slightly from one site to the other. For example, Pro Football Focus has the Bills with the 60th overall, but I've seen other sites project the Bills second-round pick at 56 overall.

The Bills will have one pick in each of the first two rounds, the compensatory pick in round three, followed by one more pick in round four. Rounds five and six is where they gained the additional picks. In round five, they have their own pick, plus the one they picked up from Green Bay in the Rasul Douglas trade. In the sixth round, they have three picks, which includes their own, plus one they acquired from the Los Angeles Rams and one from the Houston Texans. Their last pick is of course in the seventh round.