Bills' draft makes it clear that Josh Allen will need to play at MVP level in 2025
By using his first five selections on defensive players, general manager Brandon Beane showed just how serious the organization is in overhauling a unit that has let the team down time and again in the playoffs. We’ll learn in time if the Bills made proper use of those draft resources.
The primary objective of the Buffalo Bills in the 2025 NFL draft was clear and obvious over the past three days.
By using his first five selections on defensive players, general manager Brandon Beane showed just how serious the organization is in overhauling a unit that has let the team down time and again in the playoffs.
We’ll learn in time if the Bills made proper use of those draft resources. Will Maxwell Hairston become an immediate impact starter at cornerback? Will T.J. Sanders provide the interior pass rush teams so badly covet? Will Landon Jackson be a contributor to the defensive line rotation as a rookie edge rusher?
We’ll also learn the answer to another important question. In focusing so much of his time and energy on rebuilding the defense, has Beane done enough to support Josh Allen and the offense?
“People forget our offense – again, look at the ranks last year – I don’t think we’ve regressed. Time will tell. This is the team on paper, the offense is on paper, but I didn’t leave last season on offense going, ‘Man, this didn’t work,’ ” Beane said. “I didn’t see us coming up short in games or in the playoffs on the offensive side of the ball. Like I said, (if the) best player on the board was a receiver, I promise you, we would have taken him at the time. That is not how we valued it. And so that’s what we did. Right or wrong, that’s just how I feel like you build a team.”
In the end, six of the Bills’ nine draft picks in the 2025 class play defense.
Bills general manager Brandon Beane selected six defensive players and three offensive players in the NFL draft. Joshua Bessex, Buffalo News
“I can tell you 100% it wasn’t going into it, ‘Hey, we have to get X number of defensive players out of this draft,’” Beane said. “I did think the way the board was stacked, where the strengths of the board were, two of our first three picks would be, I felt pretty good, would land up that we would have a defensive player there that we liked, that filled a need, as well, at the value.”
Six of the 17 players who were on the field for at least one defensive snap in the AFC championship game against the Chiefs are no longer with the team – Rasul Douglas, Von Miller, Dawuane Smoot, Kaiir Elam, Jordan Phillips and Austin Johnson.
“It’s also a lot new,” Beane said. “We want it to be deep. We want it to have a variety of skill sets, and we want competition. I want it to be hard as hell to be one of the however many D-linemen we keep together on this 53.”
Conversely, 16 of the 19 offensive players who appeared in the AFC championship game against the Kansas City Chiefs are still on the Bills’ roster. The only departures are wide receivers Amari Cooper and Mack Hollins and No. 3 tight end Quintin Morris.
The Bills drafted their Morris replacement in the fifth round Saturday by selecting Georgia Tech tight end Jackson Hawes 173rd overall. That ended a run of five straight defensive players to start the draft – the only other time that’s happened in franchise history was 2006.
“It was truly the board. Until we got to the very end of the draft, the very end of the draft, it was the highest player on the board,” Beane said. “I would say either how we graded them, how we viewed them, but I thought it was a stronger, more depth on the defensive side of this draft.”
Beane said there were offensive players on the board that he liked, but when it came time for the Bills to turn their card in, defenders were the highest-graded players.
“That’s how we do all our work, and it makes it easy. You know what I mean?” he said. “If you set your board right, it takes a lot of the last-minute drama on the clock away, and we’re truly talking about them as we get within five, four, three, two picks. ‘All right, now we’re down to, there’s two picks left. This is going to be choice one. This is going to be choice two.’ ”
In addition to Hawes, the other offensive players chosen by the Bills came with their last two picks – UConn offensive tackle Chase Lundt in the sixth round (206th overall) and Maryland wide receiver Kaden Prather in the seventh round (240th overall).
It will be an uphill battle for either of them to make the 53-man roster as a rookie, which means that, to date, the only sure change on offense is the addition of wide receiver Joshua Palmer as a free agent.
The Bills did not add a lot of help for quarterback Josh Allen in the 2025 NFL draft. Joshua Bessex, Buffalo News
Is that enough to keep the offense functioning at the level it did in 2024?
It sure seems like Allen will need to play at a near-MVP level again. That’s a lot to put on the quarterback’s shoulders.
Beane did say that he’s counting on James Cook, adding that he did not receive any trade calls on the running back, who has been vocal about wanting a contract extension this offseason.
“He’s a competitive dude,” Beane said. “He wants to win, and nothing, nothing gives me any concern about Jimbo being ready to play.”
Cook will help, but the top four options in the wide receiver room are Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman, Curtis Samuel and Palmer. A vertical threat to stretch the field sure seems like it’s missing from the room.
It’s clear the Bills are betting big on internal growth from Coleman and third-year tight end Dalton Kincaid in particular.
Again, time will tell if that’s the right approach.