1 - GM Brandon Beane feels prep for 2019 draft goes deeper than 2018
The final countdown to the NFL draft is upon us. With 10 days left the Bills have been finalizing their draft board. Next week they'll run through mock drafts of every scenario to prepare for the draft. Despite all their preparation last year even they couldn't predict they would end up with both Josh Allen and Tremaine Edmunds.
Entering the 2018 draft there was an understandable emphasis on finding the right quarterback. By committing so many resources to finding Allen, the detailed homework on the rest of the prospect pool outside of the quarterback position of the Bills wasn't as in depth as Beane believes it is this season.
"Last year, a lot of the spring for myself and Sean (McDermott) and Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen and Terry and Kim (Pegula), because quarterback is such a valuable position and commodity, a lot of our time and energy was making sure we had that list right. That was going to have the biggest impact on what we were doing.
"(This year) to be able to spread out so to speak and not send everyone to the same place, I feel like our coverage is better we were able to get more looks and more time on more guys. Not that we missed guys last year, it's just a deeper dive on certain players because there are only so many hours in a day."
With the moves made in free agency and the quarterback position locked down, Beane is completely confident in the Bills ability to draft the best player available at the ninth pick and throughout the draft when they're on the clock.
2 - Tremaine Edmunds excited to play against brothers this year
There were two Edmunds brothers drafted last year in round one to make draft history, and there's a third brother playing in the league as well. Tremaine, Terrell and Trey. The Danville, Virginia natives were split apart as they went off to the NFL though they enjoyed the draft together with their parents in Dallas.
Tremaine went No. 16 overall to Buffalo while Terrell went No. 28 to Pittsburgh last season to join Trey in the league, who went undrafted in 2017, but was on Pittsburgh's practice squad last year. This season the Bills and Steelers will play one another. The week they play is expected to be released soon when the 2019 schedule comes out.
"We've been talking since it first came out," Edmunds said of the 2019 opponents for each NFL club. "I have two brothers there, Terrell and Trey and we've been talking, communicating. My parents are happy, everybody is happy. It's going to be a good game, it's going to be a good season. I'm excited for everything we got to take it one step at a time, but when that time comes I'm going to be excited for it.
Tremaine finished his rookie season with 121 tackles, two sacks, two forced fumbles and two interceptions while playing middle linebacker for the first time in his career. Terrell finished his rookie year with 78 tackles and one sack as a safety for Pittsburgh. Trey has nine rushing attempts for 48 yards and one touchdown in his career, and was called up to the Steelers active roster last December.
3 - Ideal top two picks for the Bills according to NFL.com
With the NFL draft around the corner teams are finalizing their big boards of prospects and ideal candidates at every position. Not every player will be guaranteed to all 32 teams, but what if they were? NFL.com's Lance Zierlein and Chad Reuter took a look at each team's ideal first two picks. And Buffalo's were obviously included on the list and were as follows.
Round 1: No. 9 overall -- Ed Oliver, DT, Houston
Round 2: No. 40 -- Greg Little, OT, Mississippi
In this ideal scenario, the Bills get to rebuild their fronts with an explosive, penetrating interior lineman who can rush the passer and one of the few true left tackles in the draft.
Oliver is a physical freak who tore up offensive lines in his time at Houston. Oliver graded physically as one of the top pass rushers in the entire NFL draft. Little was a second-team All-American and was a first-team All-SEC selection in 2018. Little helped Mississippi's offense lead the SEC and finish fifth in the nation in passing offense with 346.4 yards per game.
