At the 2020 NFL Draft, the Bills made seven picks. Buffalo general manager Brandon Beane always loves to have as many selections as he can, but even Beane was surprised his did not end up packaging some together in a trade.
“I’m always a curveball pitcher; today I just threw fastballs, just to give everybody something a little different,” Beane said Saturday. “I would have lost a lot of money saying the Buffalo Bills wouldn’t have done some type of trade.”
During his first draft with the Bills in 2018, Beane made moves. In 2017 prior to his arrival, Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott was with the Bills when the club made draft day deals.
But Beane did admit he was close two times.
“Two trades almost happened,” Beane said. “I was on a player that got selected three or four slots ahead of one of our picks. I was on with a team from the NFC and we had pretty much worked out the parameters for that move. And while I was talking to that GM, the player got selected.”
And on the other, Beane said no to moving back.
“There was one other time where we almost moved down in the round. But they were looking (to give) a future pick, and it wasn’t enough value for me. I liked what we had on the board vs. moving back. It was about 10 or 12 spots. We were going to get a future pick, but I just didn’t feel they were giving us enough,” Beane said.
In regard to that first potential trade, Beane revealed on the team’s radio station, WGR-550 on Monday, some details about that. He didn’t give a name, but did say he wanted an offensive lineman.
“I was on the clock with an NFC GM. It was about three picks away. There an offensive lineman on the board, I was calling this GM and we were kind of working out the parameters,” Beabe said. “That happened, I was literally talking to the GM and welp… we’re out. The guy that we were trading for got taken.”
Offensive line is an interesting mention because the Bills ended up not drafting one at all. From the sounds of piecing Beane’s thoughts together, it was probably a Day 3 pick. With AJ Epenesa and Zack Moss in Day 2, Beane’s post-draft sentiments have mostly been about targeting those guys with their picks the whole time. The GM did admit he thought about adding O-line in Round 4 instead of wide receiver Gabriel Davis, but he opted for Davis as he was his best-player available.
Taking a quick look at the final draft results. Some names to consider: North Carolina’s Charlie Heck went to the Texans two picks before Davis in the fourth round. In the sixth round, Oregon State’s Blake Brandel went to the Vikings four picks before Buffalo selected receiver Isaiah Hodgins.
One of those two could be the likely target Beane wanted because he later went on to call seventh-round pick Dane Jackson a “need” pick, citing a desire to add a cornerback in the draft. Plus no offensive linemen were selected before Jackson.
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