Bills' 2024 NFL Draft class ranked among worst in AFC

You can’t please everybody.

Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane entered the 2024 NFL Draft with a lack of high-value selections and several roster deficiencies. The Buffalo roster saw significant turnover in the 2024 offseason, losing the likes of Stefon Diggs, Gabriel Davis, Mitch Morse, Tre’Davious White, Micah Hyde, and Jordan Poyer, largely opting to fill these holes with internal replacements and stopgaps as opposed to significant outside investment. The team had the opportunity to deepen its roster and add immediate contributors in this year’s draft, and it looks as though Beane accomplished this task, with Florida State wide receiver Keon Coleman and Utah safety Cole Bishop being among his more notable selections.

It was an unspectacular, but rational class in which Beane added players with not only legitimate paths to the 53-man roster, but actual meaningful roles. No player looks like a surefire home run selection, but one could make a case for the vast majority of Buffalo’s picks contributing as early as the 2024 NFL season.

But not everybody shares this sentiment.

Sports Illustrated’s Matt Verderame recently ranked each AFC team’s draft class from least to most inspiring, ranking Buffalo’s haul as the 15th best—or second worst—in the conference. The writer preferred the Bills’ class to only that of the Tennessee Titans.

“The Bills traded back twice in the first round before ultimately selecting WR Keon Coleman with the first pick of the second round,” Verderame wrote. “Buffalo then decided to pass on a litany of other talented wideouts, instead loading up on the offensive line with four picks. The Day 2 choices of S Cole Bishop and DT DeWayne Carter were their best.”

Verderame hit Beane the hardest on his decision to select only one wideout in what was widely viewed as a rather deep wide receiver class, especially given Buffalo’s lack of depth at the position. While it’s a fair qualm to have—many expected Beane to double (or triple) dip on the position—it seems an arbitrary point to get hung up on. 

The Bills’ selections of Bishop and Duke defensive tackle DeWayne Carter were Verderame’s favorites, implying that the writer wanted Buffalo to select more pass-catchers on day three of the draft. Day three wide receivers ultimately amount to throws at the dartboard, and the Bills already have several of those on their roster. Justin Shorter, a former Florida wide receiver whom Buffalo selected in the fifth round of the 2023 NFL Draft, spent his entire rookie year on injured reserve. The Bills’ brass also seems to like Tyrell Shavers, a 6-foot-4 wideout who spent the 2023 season on the team’s practice squad. Buffalo is also taking shots on several wide receivers who fell through the cracks of this year’s draft, reportedly agreeing to undrafted free agent contracts with Ohio State receiver Xavier Johnson and Tulane wideout Lawrence Keys.

Will any of these shots hit the dartboard? That remains to be seen, but the sheer number of throws they have perhaps explains their reasoning for passing on receivers late in this year’s draft.

Verderame also takes issue with Buffalo selecting “four” offensive linemen in this year’s draft, which is not only mathematically incorrect, but an overgeneralization. The Bills dedicated three of their ten selections to the offensive line—center Sedrick Van Pran-Granger, tackle Tyler Grable, and tackle Travis Clayton. Van Pran-Granger, a Georgia center whom Buffalo selected in the fifth round, perhaps fills a need as early as this season; the Bills moved on from longtime starting center Mitch Morse in the offseason, and though they figure to slide guard Connor McGovern over to center, there’s an easily imaginable possible scenario where the team prefers to keep him at guard. Van Pran-Granger, in that hypothetical situation, could slot in immediately at center.

Grable is a late-round developmental flier, as is Clayton, a 6-foot-7 former rugby player from England who is part of the NFL’s International Player Pathway program. He ran a 4.79 40-yard-dash at over 300 pounds—one can forgive Beane for taking a swing on his athletic profile.

Ultimately, all draft grades—whether positive or negative—are premature at this juncture, as we won’t truly know how Buffalo’s 2024 draft class pans out until several years from now. Looking around the rest of the AFC East, Verderame ranked the New England Patriots, New York Jets, and Miami Dolphins’ classes as the fourth, eighth, and 11th best in the conference, respectively.