The Bills began discussing the idea of taking a quarterback near the top of the 2018 draft all the way back in May 2017 when general manager Brandon Beane was hired, Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com.
“It’s a quarterback league; you’ve either got one or you don’t,” Beane said. “And we were getting to know Tyrod and Tyrod brought a lot of good things for us, but we decided as the season moved on that we were probably going to go in a different direction, and at the same time we were still thinking, ‘OK, if Tyrod is our guy we’ll draft other things, and if not, we’ll be ready to move forward.’ And that planning really started in August with some of the moves we made, and to add the draft capital that we did.”
When it came time for the draft, the Bills managed to move up for Allen by sending their No. 12 pick and two second-round picks to the Bucs for the No. 7 choice. After that, the Bills doubted that they would be able to land Virginia Tech linebacker Tremaine Edmunds, who was another one of their top targets. Luckily for them, the Raiders opted to bolster their offensive line with the No. 15 pick, giving them an opportunity to trade up for Baltimore’s pick at No. 16.
“We had tried to trade with Oakland … and they were like, ‘No, we’re taking the pick,‘” Beane said. “So I called [Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome] and we agreed to the terms while Oakland was still on the clock and he said, ‘Let me know if your guy is still there.’ So until I heard them say it was Kolton Miller you had to assume that they were taking Tremaine. And if they had we would have stayed pat at 22.”
The Bills are happy with how things turned out in the first round, but it may take a while before we see how this draft class pans out, particularly when it comes to Allen.
Here’s more from the AFC:
- Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson tells NFL Network that he expects to be “full-go” for the first day of training camp (Twitter link via Adam Wexler of KPRC). Watson was able to practice without a knee brace during the team’s minicamp last month, so it was expected that he would be ready to roll for camp this month. Watson threw for 19 touchdown passes in his injury-shortened seven-game season and expectations are high heading into Year Two.
- Colts GM Chris Ballard says the team will have Chris McCain in training camp as his legal process plays out. “We’re getting two extreme versions of the truth,” Ballard said (Twitter link via Stephen Holder of the Indy Star). McCain has been charged with battery in California, but maintains his innocence.
- Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman will not sue the NFL over his four-game suspension.