By CHUCK POLLOCK, Wellsville Sun Senior Sports Columnist
(Editor’s Note: This is the second in a two-art series previewing the draft for the Bills)
You all have to be “mocked out.”
There was a time when National Football League mock drafts were a rarity. But in recent years, it seems everybody with a capital letter in their last name has their own and there are some who compose several and toss them at the wall hoping something will stick.
And here’s the most galling thing, come Sunday, the day after this year’s NFL draft is complete, there will be egomaniacs who decide it’s time for a 2026 mock.
I’m proud of the fact that this is the 53rd NFL draft I’ve covered and never once since 1973 was I consumed with enough arrogance to conjure my own “mock.”
So rather than speculate about tonight’s first round and who Buffalo will take with the 30th pick (8 o’clock ABC-TV, ESPN, NFL Network) let’s try to settle on the Bills’ priority.
FOR YEARS, NFL teams have bought into the theory that they should draft at least one cornerback every lottery and, sometimes, two.
That’s absolutely the case with the Bills who have a clear need, though that doesn’t mean the first round.
When last season ended with the a defeat by the Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game, Buffalo lost a starting corner, Rasul Douglas, acquired via an in-season trade with Green Bay. When his contract expired at season’s end, Douglas was a free agent as Buffalo declined to re-sign him ensuring a costly deal as the Packers got a third round pick and sent the Bills a fifth.
Douglas’ starting position was open until the team re-signed two former Bills, Tre’Davious White, the team’s 2017 first-round pick, and Dane Jackson, a seventh-rounder in 2020. Meanwhile, Christian Benford, a sixth-rounder in 2022, is the starter on the other side.
Still, Buffalo is operating at a deficit at the position as Kaiir Elam, a bust Buffalo took in 2022’s first round, went to Dallas via trade.
But, it could be argued that the Bills have two other defensive positions that are equally short-staffed, both by signing blunders.
The team denies one as it maintains it already knew that edge rusher Michael Hoecht, the former Ram, had violated the league’s performance-enhancing drug statute and was facing a 6-game suspension. But that was not the case with tackle Larry Ogunjobi, late of the Steelers, who had a similar violation and suspension.
That leaves Buffalo with only three experienced tackles and four such ends, though one of them, free agent signee Joey Bosa, has missed 23 games over the past three seasons due to injury.
This is supposedly a good draft for defensive linemen meaning it would not be a surprise if Buffalo a tackle Thursday evening in Round 1, especially if the front office felt that there wasn’t a corner who fit their needs.
But it’s bad deduction if a team is chasing to treplace players who were signed in error.
THEN THERE’S wide receiver, a position of need as recently as 12 months ago.
It’s like the pachyderm-in-the-parlor, most everybody realizes it’s a problem but few people talk about it.
Buffalo’s top wideout is Khalil Shakir, a skilled possession receiver but hardly a burner. Last year’s top draft pick (first choice in the second round) Keon Coleman is also not a field-stretcher, indeed his 2-yard average separation per route is the worst in the NFL. He missed four games with a wrist injury and wasn’t the same when he returned, finishing with 29 receptions and four touchdowns.
Gone from last season’s receiving corps are Mack Hollins who caught 31 balls and led the team with five TD receptions but signed with New England. Meanwhile Amari Cooper, who had 20 catches and two toucdhowns after being acquired in a trade with Cleveland remains an unsigned free agent and stands as another trade defeat as Buffalo sent the Browns a third-round draft choice — which is why they have none in that vital round this year — and a seventh rounder while the Bills got a sixth-round pick.
Curtis Samuel, signed as the marquee free agent last season, missed three games and caught 31 passes, one for a touchdown. He’s joined on Buffalo’s receiving list by free agents Joshua Palmer and Lavishka Shenault. Not exactly a crew that strikes fear into opposing defensive backfields.
The Bills, between tonight and tomorrow, have three picks, No. 30 today and No. 56 and 62 in tomorrow’s second round. Whom Buffalo takes with those three selections, before waiting for their two fourth-round picks (109 and 132), will speak volumes about their perception of the highest priorities.
(Chuck Pollock, a Wellsville Sun and Olean Star senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@wnynet.net.)
