Bills GM Brandon Beane needed to draft help for Josh Allen, defense. He played it safe
The championship window is open but Beane opted for depth picks in a weak draft class.
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Buffalo Bills GM Brandon Beane made several trades to acquire additional picks. Mark Konezny / Imagn Images
Buffalo Bills fans entered the NFL Draft with two clear priorities for their team.
Add help for Josh Allen or fill some holes on defense.
The 2026 draft class wasn’t deep enough to do both. Bills general manager Brandon Beane needed to be aggressive to accomplish either.
Instead, Beane played it safe.
The most recent Super Bowl-winning teams made dynamic moves, while the Bills continued to hang back.
Beane showed patience and played the long game, making trades, accumulating more picks and acquiring prospects we won’t know much about for a few years.
That’s the rub with every draft class, really. Draftniks slap grades on the quality of the picks based on their perceptions of where the player’s talent meets positional need. But nobody knows for sure.
And this spring is even foggier. The 2026 draft was considered weak. Plus, the Bills went into Thursday night with meager draft capital, slotted toward the end of each round, no compensatory picks, and having sent their second-rounder to the Chicago Bears for receiver DJ Moore last month.
Beane made trades to maximize his stash, but adding draft picks meant moving back to trawl increasingly shallow waters.
In other words, a no-splash zone. Not a wave of difference-making talent, but closer to a trickle.
As NFL analyst Warren Sharp summed up Beane’s moves with the Uno meme: “Help Josh Allen and draft offense or draw 25.” The Bills opted to hold half the deck.
The Bills made 10 selections, but many won’t make the 53-man roster. Only two were taken before the fourth round. Three came in the final round.
First round: Clemson edge rusher T.J. Palmer.
Second round: Ohio State cornerback Davison Igbinosun.
Fourth round: Boston College offensive tackle Jude Bowry, Connecticut receiver Skyler Bell and Texas Christian linebacker Kaleb Elarms-Orr.
Fifth round: South Carolina safety Jalon Kilgore and Penn State defensive tackle Zane Durant.
Seventh round: Missouri cornerback Toriano Pride, Florida punter Tommy Doman and Texas A&M guard Ar’maj Reed-Adams.
Beane explained Saturday’s eight draft choices were “just trying to add more depth and more competition” and noted that, “When you get to the seventh round, for the most part, you’re kind of securing a guy that you don’t have to fight for as a priority (undrafted rookie) free agent.”
Beane also revealed he viewed “the biggest hole on our roster was corner” entering the draft. He could have grabbed the second cornerback off the board with their assigned No. 26 pick, but he kept trading back and eventually made Igbinosun – considered a reach at the time by draft analysts – the seventh taken at the position.
It’s fair to believe the Bills have neglected their defense so far.
Remember: Defense was widely considered Buffalo’s chief liability, part of the rationale for firing Sean McDermott. New defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard is supposed to make improvements, but the personnel looks very similar. Beane admitted they didn’t change the way they evaluate defensive prospects because of the switch.
“We did, truly, no matter what type of system we’re running or who’s coaching the team, we did need some infusion of youth on this defense,” Beane said, “and I think it’s just more where the iteration of this roster is more than a coaching transition.”
The Bills allowed 5.1 yards per run, better than just the New York Giants and Cincinnati Bengals. The Bills surrendered 24 rushing touchdowns, tied for the league’s worst. Ohio State defensive tackle Kayden McDonald, considered the best run-stopper, was available when the Bills took Palmer.
Buffalo’s defense still hasn’t been addressed fully. Beane has made one free-agent addition to the front seven, edge rusher Bradley Chubb.
Bradley Chubb was one addition Beane made to the front seven.Kirby Lee / Imagn Images
“After we got through free agency,” Beane said, “we kind of turned our direction to what the draft looks like, what we’ve already attained in free agency or re-signed on our team. We felt like there was more opportunities to compete at either starting roles or key backups on the defensive side of the ball, and we also felt like there was enough depth in some of those positions in the draft.”
Beane added a few defensive backs in free agency. The rest of the depth chart, however, essentially was left alone until the draft. Postseason starters defensive tackle DaQuan Jones, edge rusher Joey Bosa, linebackers Matt Milano and Shaq Thompson, cornerback Tre’Davious White and safety Jordan Poyer remain unsigned.
Not all of them were expected back. They all have injury histories. White and Poyer are at the ends of their careers. But that’s over half of Buffalo’s starting postseason defense without employment just three months later.
Replacements exist on the roster. Defensive linemen DeWayne Carter and Landon Jackson (third-round picks each of the previous two years), linebacker Terrel Bernard and second-year cornerback Maxwell Hairston will be healthier. Defensive lineman Michael Hoecht is recovering from a torn Achilles and could contribute too.
So what is Beane to do when his team is so successful and continues to draft late in each round and, as he and coach Joe Brady have continually reminded us, they must pay Allen as a megastar quarterback deserves?
Maybe take notes from the GMs who win Super Bowls.
Over the past seven drafts, the Bills’ earliest pick was No. 23 — easily the latest of any club.
Only two teams had been in that vicinity, and they won four of the past six Super Bowls. Then the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Rams traded up Thursday night to make headline selections.
Now, nobody other than Buffalo has drafted later than 14th overall since 2020.
Kansas City’s earliest first-round pick before Thursday night was All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie with the 21st pick in 2022. Los Angeles’ earliest first-rounder was 2024 Defensive Rookie of the Year and two-time Pro Bowl outside linebacker Jared Verse with the 19th pick.
Thursday night, the Chiefs traded up three spots to take the first cornerback off the board, LSU’s Mansoor Delane, sixth overall. Seven picks later, the Rams jolted the league by calling Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson.
The reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks have managed to select fifth, ninth, 16th, 18th, 20th and 27th. Five of them were rookie starters, and the sixth is receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, the Offensive Player of the Year.
The Philadelphia Eagles drafted ninth, 10th, 13th, 21st, 22nd and 30th, collecting stalwarts such as nose tackle Jalen Carter, receiver DaVonta Smith and cornerback Quinyon Mitchell and defensive starters Jordan Davis and Nolan Smith. The lone whiff was receiver Jaylen Reagor.
This year, Philly traded up to snag USC receiver Makai Lemon 20th overall. Our draft analyst, Dane Brugler, ranked Lemon the second-best receiver in the class. Then the Eagles traded a third-round pick to the Minnesota Vikings for edge rusher Jonathan Greenard. Two weeks earlier, the Eagles acquired Green Bay Packers receiver Dontayvion Wicks in a package for late-round picks.
How do Eagles GM Howie Roseman and Seahawks GM John Schneider keep doing it? Rams boss Les Snead and Chiefs leadership tandem Andy Reid and Brett Veach don’t seem hindered by obstacles either, despite later draft slots and paying future Hall of Fame quarterbacks.
They win Super Bowls yet still find ways to reload with impact players.
Buffalo, meanwhile, drafted a bunch of depth pieces it must first develop simply into starters before it can hope to push a perennial contender over that “proverbial playoff wall.”
