The Bills have jumped up in the fourth round of the 2025 NFL Draft in order to draft Kentucky defensive tackle Deone Walker. Buffalo sent the Nos. 132 and 169 overall picks — their original fourth and first compensatory pick in the fifth — to Chicago in order to swap with the Bears.
Interestingly enough, the selection originally belonged to the Bears in 2024 before being sent to Buffalo in the Ryan Bates trade then being sent back to Chicago so that the Bills could move up in the fifth round last year. The Bills acquired the selection from the Bears for the second time with today’s trade.
Walker adds some extreme size to the Bills defensive line. Ed Oliver is on the smaller side on the interior, and Larry Ogunjobi is facing a suspension to start the season. Buffalo clearly has a focus of adding more size in the trenches next to DaQuan Jones after taking T.J. Sanders (6-foot-4, 290 pounds) out of South Carolina yesterday and adding Walker (6-foot-7, 331 pounds) today.
Walker has a tendency to get erased when stacked up by double teams in the run game, but surprisingly for his size, he plays without stiffness on the pass rush and benefits from his elite size to make plays, collecting 7.5 sacks in 2023 and 10.0 over his three years in Lexington. A Bills defense that finished 12th in run defense and 24th in pass defense in 2024 — as well as 18th in team sacks — adds a big and strong weapon that could develop favorably.