Well, draft day has come and gone and with that, the 2023-2024 Buffalo Bills roster is becoming more clear. What is also becoming more clear is that the 2023-2024 season will look very different. Obviously, some of the players on the field will be different, but I think through the players the team has added we may see some shifting in philosophies on both sides of the ball. 

There were many directions the team could have gone in round one, and with a run on receivers happening just before the Bills selection, it seemed like a pass catcher was going to be pushed down the list. The Bills instead pushed up the draft board to jump the Cowboys and select Dalton Kincaid. Seeing a tight end taken in the first round threw many people off, but a quick look at Kincaid will tell you that he is not your typical tight end. Kincaid was brought in to be a receiving weapon and operate a ton in the slot. Personally love this pick, and I think it fills a void that we’ve had on this roster. Yes, the offense can be super fun when they’re ripping off huge chunks, but a couple of missed shots and drives sputter out. A legitimate weapon at slot can help pick apart zones, keep double coverage off of Diggs and help keep the offense on schedule while still maintaining the ability to hit the homerun ball. A+ pick in my book.

The team followed up in the second round, drafting a monster of a guard in O’Cyrus Torrence. Torrence is a player that I had seen mocked to the Buffalo Bills countless times in the first round! To be able to snag him in the second round is fantastic value. We’ve seen tons of players brought in to compete on the offensive line but haven’t seen a significant investment like this since Cody Ford. Torrence can likely be penciled in as a day-one starter, which can not only fortify our starting five but also allow the team to have very meaningful depth. Combine this with the addition of David Edwards and Connor McGovern, and things are shaping up nicely to keep #17 clean. Another A+ to me.

In the third round, the Bills selected Dorian Williams, which is where I was left scratching my head a bit. My next wish from the draft was a big body at DT to help our smaller linebackers play clean if that was the plan. Instead, they drafted…. An undersized linebacker. Now we don’t know the whole story yet, and maybe Beane had his plans in place before the draft, but with today's addition of Poona Ford, I feel much better about this pick. This is the main area where I think we see some philosophical shifts with the Bills. With two consecutive years of taking more WILL style linebackers in the third round, perhaps the plan is to have the big boys up front keep the backers clean, and have smaller, more athletic guys who excel against the pass and dare teams to beat us on the ground. Before the signing of Poona Ford, my grade here was a C+. With the addition of Poona Ford, and the benefit of assuming the team has a bigger plan here, I’ll bump this up to a B.

After the third round, Brandon Beane hit us with a flurry of trade downs. From the perspective of being at work trying to follow the Bills picks, I hated this. From a team-building standpoint, I loved the trade backs. Beane still managed to come away with six picks and added three picks for next year's draft. For a team as talented as the Bills are, players drafted in the late rounds are going to have a tough time cracking the 53-man roster. We’ve seen Bills lose draft picks they try to stash on the practice squad in Wildgoose, Tenuta, and Campbell. I think these trade downs for Beane will give him the tools to move around in next year's draft and use the extra picks to select five or six guys that have a real chance of impacting the roster, rather than ten guys and three get snagged to other rosters.

The Bills rounded out the draft with the selections of Justin Shorter, Nick Broeker, and Alex Austin. These three players we will be discussing as I take a deeper dive on them and we move towards training camp.

Overall the draft adds to what I think has been a sneaky good offseason. The team has really committed to giving Allen the tools to succeed. Not only have they brought in receivers through free agency and the draft, but they also bolstered the starting offensive line and the depth behind the starters. They also brought in a short yardage back in Damien Harris to help take some of the rushing load off of Allen. In a year where free agency did not have flashy names like Von Miller, Beane has been doing some great work setting the team up for the year to come.

Let me know some of your thoughts on the Buffalo Bills’ 2023 Draft and what you liked or didn’t like. We will discuss comments on our next podcast!