The Bills already made their trade involving the 2020 NFL Draft. Stefon Diggs is now a Bill, and Buffalo general manager Brandon Beane said that’s his first-round last week, since he had to trade his actual one to acquire the wideout.
But as per usual with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, things have already drastically and quickly changed since Beane said that.
At the time of Beane’s comment, he and the rest of the NFL had no idea what would happen with the upcoming draft. Would it be close to status quo? Typically Beane, head coach Sean McDermott and the Bills scouting department would meet at HQ in Orchard Park while the draft unfolds, making all their decisions in one room. But not anymore.
The NFL announced on Monday that the draft would be conducted completely “virtually.” That means everyone in the Bills front office must stay at home and be connected digitally, not in the same room. The same can be said about all other teams. Since that decision was made, Beane has expressed his concerns with that scenario. Something he might have avoided.
“I would love to picking still in the first round, but with that said, if there was ever a year to trade out of the first round, maybe this was the year to give everybody else a night to test the technology,” Beane said on the Adam Schefter Podcast. “See if there are any kinks before our pick in the second round.”
Then there’s another huge layer: draft day trades.
Last week Beane also compared trading for Diggs to moving up in the draft. He said the capital the Bills traded for Diggs would have only gotten the Bills up a few slots. With all that’s unfolded since saying that, Beane also said he’s completely unsure how trades will even go down in the first round now with this virtual setting, adding perhaps teams will shy away from doing so.
“I don’t know exactly how that’s going to happen,” Beane said. “First of all, I think you’re going to have people that are going to be a little hesitant. That are just… too many hoops to jump through.”
“We’re going to have to see how complicated is it, compared to what we’re used to, and then what about time constraints? Are there going to be any parameters in the draft, once or twice, where you can ask to be extended two minutes or something like that to execute [a trade]?” he added.
Beane explained that not only will it be hard just for a general manager to contact another GM, he explained trades run much deeper than that. Maybe Beane’s talking to a team? Maybe one of his assistants is talking to another team? Could there be a third executive talking to a third team as well? That’s where all those hoops come in, plus there’s confirming the trade with the league office.
Based on Beane’s insight, the Bills could be looking at the steal of the draft already by simply not having to worry about the hoopla of Day 1.
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