After a heartbreaking loss in OT against the Texans on Wildcard weekend, The Bills and McDermott knew they were close, but they also knew how important the upcoming off-season was. The Bills knew they needed to add more weapons around Josh Allen and on the 16th March they did that, they traded their 2020 1st round Pick to the Vikings for WR Stefon Diggs. Not only was this a great trade for the Bills it was also an excellent trade for Diggs, in Minnesota it was publicly known he did not have the best relationship with Zimmer or with Cousins and was frustrated with the lack of action he was getting. Alongside Diggs, the Bills also added LB A.J Klein who played his last 3 years for the Saints, in the last 2 years in NO, he started all but 1 game and had 193 and 6.5 sacks as well as 18 TFL’s. He now comes into Buffalo to match up with Pro Bowler Tremaine Edmunds.
As well as adding Klein to a defence that ranked 11th against the run they added former Panthers DT Vernon Butler, Butler who had a breakout here starting 9 games and had 6 sacks and 7 TFL’s joins this defence as the Bills look to replace Jordan Phillips, Corey Liuget. It will be interesting to see what impact Butler has against the run, Carolina had one of the worst run defences in the league last season. The Bills also signed Mario Addison DE/OLB from the Panthers, Addison who has had at least 9 sacks in his last 4 years at Carolina, also seemed to struggle against the run. A good pass rusher but not so good against the run. Another signing the Bills have made on defence is DE Quinton Jefferson from the Seahawks. Jefferson, who started 24 out of the last 32 games for Seattle but mostly rotated along that stacked Seattle D-Line and adding more depth onto this Bills line.
As well as strengthening the defence the Bills also added former Panthers OT Daryl Williams. Williams, who is coming of one of his worst seasons ever after allowing 12 sacks last season. Will be hoping for a rejuvenated season to kick start his career again.
Onto the draft now and with the Bills having no 1st round pick we move straight into the 2nd round were the Bills selected Iowa DE A.J Epenesa. Epenesa was reportedly who the Bills would’ve drafted in the 1st round if they would of had a 1st round pick, so for him to slip this far was a steal in the Bills eyes. Over his 3 years at Iowa Epenesa had 26.5 sacks and 30.5 TFL’s as well as a crazy 9 FF. He comes swooping off the edge and has the wingspan to get up and around to knock the ball out of opposing QB’s hand. When watching tape he also showed he is capable of splitting double teams on a regular basis and not only that, everyone knows that guys from Iowa are well educated! A great selection by the Bills who were extremely pleased that Epenesa slipped this far! He was named PFF’s biggest Steal of the draft!
In round 3 the Bills selected RB Zach Moss the RB out of Utah, and it’s fair to say i really like this guy. After looking on Twitter when the Bills selected Moss i saw Michelle (@BallBlastEm) going on about how good this selection was. I saw people pointing out that Josh Allen scores and runs the most in the Redzone, and then i saw the reply as following “Gore had 11 goal line carries last year T-13th most in the NFL, Singletary had 2 and Allen had 5 and yet Gore only scored 2 TD’s which is terrible”. Zach Moss is a bigger and stronger Devin Singletary and to say that he will be a good person to back at the start of the year would be an understatement. The bookies always get rookies lines wrong at the start of the year so i will be looking closely to see what they have him up at.
In round 4 the Bills selected WR Gabriel Davis WR out of UCF in his final year at USF, Davis posted great numbers having 72 REC, 1241 Receiving yards and 12 TD’s. Standing at 6ft 3in he fits in great as a big redzone target to match up with speedster John Brown and newly acquainted WR Stefon Diggs. Most of the scouting reports on Davis say he has great hands and could easily take a slant to the house with his speed. So this guy is tall and has jet speed? An interesting prospect for sure.
In the 5th round the Bills selected Jake Fromm QB from Georgia, Brandon Beane is a strong believer in drafting talent no matter the position and it was clear when he drafted Fromm in the 5th round he was selecting the best player on his board. Fromm passed for 8236 yards at Georgia with a 78:18 TD:INT ratio at a completion rate of 63.3%. The knock on Fromm is that he does not have the strongest arm, his combine performance hurt his draft stock for sure and it was apparent as the 2/3rd round prospect fell down into the 5th. He goes to cold and windy Buffalo were the elements are hard anyway so it will be interesting to see how he gets on there.
In round 6 the Bills took kicker Tyler Bass from Georgia Southern, not much on this one apart from a key fact. Bass, consistently drills 50yard FG’s while taking no steps and drills 60yard FG’s with 1 step. Be interesting to see how he gets on kicking for the Bills in the tough elements! The Bills also selected Isaiah Hodgins WR out of Oregon State in the 6th round, adding more depth at the receiver position they drafted 2 in the draft. In his 3 years for the Beavers, Hodgins had 176 REC, 2322 Receiving yards and 20 TD’s. In his final year he doubled his stats for the previous 2 years, showing he has progressed and could be ready to take the next step into the NFL. His 13 TD receptions in 2019 led all PAC-12 receivers!
With their final pick in the 2020 NFL Draft the Bills selected Dane Jackson – CB – Pittsburgh. After picking up the 5th year option on Tre White before hopefully extending him and resigning Levi Wallace the Bills wanted to add depth and they did that in the 7th round. In college Jackson recorded 4 INT’s and 39 PD’s in his 3 full years starting at Pitt. A nice addition to the Bills secondary and a good special team player.
All in all the Bills off-season and draft was a good one. They got additional talent and replaced players that needed to be replaced, they have a great HC in Sean McDermott (one of the best in the league in my opinion) and they will hope they can progress from a disappointing loss to the Texans and get further next year. That starts by winning the AFC East and with the Patriots without a starting QB they are the favourites in my eyes. The bet of this article is The Bills to win the AFC East at 8/5 @ Unibet/888 – the Patriots may yet add a QB which could boost the odds a little but with how well the Bills did last year and by making that offence stronger with Moss and Diggs i believe they can finally take down a Brady-less New England!
Other Markets include Josh Allen passing TD’s o/u at 20.5 @ PaddyPower and his passing yards is at 3249.5 also at PaddyPower both 5/6. There are no other markets for Bills players yet but hopefully towards the start of the season we may see more.
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Article Written by Jack Wilson – @BeefyLayd17
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