The Buffalo Bills address their pass rush with Penn State’s Yetur Gross-Matos in CBS Sports’ latest mock ahead of the 2020 NFL Draft.
Depending on the next month leading up to free agency, the Bills could absolutely use a pass rusher like Gross-Matos from their first pick at No. 22 overall.
Here’s why the Bills went that route per CBS Sports’ mock via Tom Fornelli:
I’m a big fan of Gross-Matos and had him going in the top 10 in my original mock. That might have been a bit optimistic. Still, he strikes me as a player who will impress during the combine and workouts, and he strikes me as a player Buffalo will like a lot.
While offense is certainly a popular pick for the Bills in Round 1, pass rusher is close behind. If the Bills do land Gross-Matos, they could take a guy that many draft analysts consider as one of the more underrated edge defenders in the 2020 draft pool. Gross-Matos is praised as a high-motor athlete, but concerns are over his frame. He is 6-foot-5 and 260-plus pounds, but adding more will help him. In 11 games played in 2019, he had nine sacks and 40 tackles, including 14.5 for loss. In 2018, Gross Matos had 20 for loss along with eight sacks.
In Gross-Matos the Bills land the fourth edge defender off the board in this mock draft, but depending on the way the Bills attack free agency, he could make plenty of sense. Not only could the Bills lose Shaq Lawson, they could stand to use more production overall from the position. Lawson led the Bills’ defensive end group with 6.5 sacks last season. That’s not good enough.
Worth noting based on the way things currently sit for the Bills, wide receiver is certainly in play with the way CBS Sports’ mock falls. Only two wideouts, CeeDee Lamb and Jerry Jeudy, are selected ahead of the Bills’ pick. In many mock drafts, up to to five are picked before Buffalo’s selection. That’d be a prime situation for the Bills to get a top-talent playmaker on offense.
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