Buffalo Bills were so close to passing on Dalton Kincaid

Going into the 2023 NFL Draft, the Buffalo Bills knew they wanted to add an offensive playmakers. General manager Brandon Beane had said so, mulitple times, prior to the first round kicking off.

Last season, it got tiring watching Stefon Diggs shoulder so much of the weight. Teams knew they could double-team Diggs and force someone else to have to step up, which is one of the reasons that led to Diggs' frustration toward the tail end of the season. He simply wasn't getting the ball as much as he would have liked.

Just five picks before the Bills were on the clock in the first round, though, Beane told reporters that he was sold on trading back in the draft, which would have left their selection, Dalton Kincaid, to go to the Dallas Cowbys, undoubtedly.

However, when the opportunity became more and more real that Beane could end up with his desired offensive weapon, the Bills opted to instead trade up.

Brandon Beane was dead set on the Buffalo Bills trading back, but Dalton Kincaid was too juicy of an opportunity to pass up

“You ask me five picks before we picked, I still would have told you we were going to trade down,” Beane told media after Day 1 of the Draft.

"If Dalton was not there, we would have traded back," Beane said.

That says a lot about how the Bills view Kincaid. Of course, the Bills already have Dawson Knox, one of the better, young tight ends in the game today. However, Beane sees the opportunity to use both of them quite a bit, with Kincaid acting more as a receiver than anything.

"He is a tight end, but he is a receiving tight end. We think he'll pair well with Dawson and give us another target in the middle of the field. So, yeah, when him and Dawson are in the game, you're in '12' [personnel], but it's quasi like '11' anyway. He's not your standard 'Y' tight end. He's going to be flexed out a lot more than necessarily you would do with Dawson," said Beane.

The Bills did have a lot of trouble finding sturdy help in the middle of the field last year. They didn't have an answer in the slot. They had no one who was crafty enough to find the openings, make the catch and gain yards after the reception. Now, with Kincaid, they have a bigger body that can do exactly that.