Bills’ draft priority is at QB
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. » There’s no secret to the Buffalo Bills being in the market for a quarterback.
Even their players will attest to addressing that position being a priority in the days leading up to the NFL draft.
“This is a quarterback- driven league,” veteran defensive end Lorenzo Alexander said. “And whether that quarterback is on our roster or it’s somebody that we decide we want to move up and get, that’s something that you always as an organization want to build around.”
Buffalo has no one closely resembling a franchise quarterback after trading Tyrod Taylor to Cleveland last month. Taylor, who went 23-21 over three seasons in Buffalo, wasn’t part of the Bills’ long-term plans despite helping them to a 9-7 finish and ending a 17-season playoff drought — the longest active streak in North America’s four major professional sports.
His departure leaves Buffalo with two quarterbacks with a combined six career starts (including playoffs): free-agent addition AJ McCarron and Nathan Peterman, best remembered for throwing five interceptions in the first half of a blowout loss to
the Chargers in his rookie season.
What the Bills do have are assets in terms of draft picks — nine overall, including two in each of the first three rounds — to land one of the highly regarded prospects available by either staying put at Nos. 12 and 22, or packaging them in a trade to move up in the order.
Buffalo already jumped up nine spots by swapping first-round picks in a trade that sent starting left tackle Cordy Glenn to Cincinnati last month.
Brandon Beane so carefully guards his intentions the Bills general manager jokes he won’t even tell his wife.
“It doesn’t leave the building,” said Beane, who will oversee his first draft in Buffalo after replacing Doug Whaley in May.
Acknowledging having met with each of the six top-rated quarterback prospects, Beane will go as far as saying: “One of our main jobs as a GMis to find a franchise quarterback.”
And yet, he would still deem this draft a success without selecting one.
“There’s a lot of good players in the draft. And that was the big thing moving from 21 to 12,” Beane said.
“The natural assumption, I get it, is we’re moving up to get a quarterback, yada, yada, yada. No, we improved our draft position,” he added. “We’re excited about where that moves us on our draft board, and the players that we see would be available there.”
OTHER NEEDS
The offensive line has sprung holes after center Eric Wood was diagnosed with a career- ending neck injury in January, and left guard Richie Incognito abruptly decided to retire two weeks ago. Buffalo lacks an established receiver beyond Kelvin Benjamin, and has yet to identify a starting middle linebacker after losing Preston Brown in free agency.
NO SLEEP
Beane appreciates the enormity of overseeing his first draft after previously serving as Carolina Panthers assistant GM.
“Thanks, I won’t be sleeping for the next 10 days,” he said, upon being informed this might be Buffalo’s most significant draft since eventual Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly was selected 14th in 1983.
“But again, I think I’ll lose sleep every year going into the draft because you’re always going to have holes.”
Since Namath’s last game with the Jets in 1976, the team has had 30 players make at least one start under center. On Thursday night, New York has the opportunity to add a quarterback who might stop the revolving door.
That’s why the Jets were willing to deal the No. 6 overall pick to Indianapolis along with two secondround selections this year and a second-rounder next year to move up three spots.
“It’s all about opportunity,” Maccagnan said. “We felt good about where we were originally picking and then we made the trade and moved ourselves to position ourselves, in our mind, to be in a position to have a good option and a good choice with that spot.”
New York’s ultimate decision, however, will be contingent upon what Cleveland — which also needs a quarterback — does at No. 1 overall, and if the Giants stay put at No. 2 and pick a successor to Eli Manning or target another position.
That dynamic at the top of the draft, along with the lack of a consensus order among the top QBs, has created lots of intrigue and made mock drafts an al- ways- changing mix- andmatch mess.
“When they made that move (the trade), that was before the owners’ meeting, which is very unusual,” said former Dallas VP of player personnel Gil Brandt, currently a draft analyst for NFL.com and SiriusXM NFL Radio.
“That led me to believe that he and his staff were ready to roll in terms of these quarterbacks in the middle of March, regardless of which one winds up at No. 3.”
Maccagnan wouldn’t tip his hand on how the Jets are leaning — and wouldn’t even acknowledge that quarterback will be the way they’ll go with their first pick.
But it seems clear that either USC’s Darnold, Oklahoma’s Mayfield, UCLA’s Rosen or Wyoming’s Allen will be wearing green and white sometime Thursday night.
“I know everybody seems to be locked in on that, I don’t know why,” a smiling Maccagnan said of the QBto-Jets speculation. “We actually may take a safety this year. ... I think like everything else, the quarterback is such an important position that it’s always going to be a focal point of that this may be a position of interest, especially for us.
“But, yeah, we’ll see how it plays itself out.”