Welcome back to the Buffalo Bread podcast.
JJ here and with us tonight, a special tradition,
a tradition like no other.
Friends of the Bills, not Friends of the Pod,
AFC East three round mock draft.
We have Steve representing the Miami Dolphins,
Brandon representing the New England Patriots,
and sadly Jared couldn't make it,
so Dan will be representing the New York Jets,
the New Jersey Jets, if we're honest.
We're gonna do three rounds, trades eligible,
and to kick us off here,
I'm going to ask Steve, our Miami Dolphins GM,
to introduce himself again to the pod.
It is April 22nd.
We are just a few days away
from the first round on Thursday,
and let's get this thing going, Steve.
Great.
Good evening, everybody.
Thank you, JJ and Dan, for inviting me back again this year.
Been a Miami Dolphins fan for my entire life,
and the time is now.
It's a win now scenario for the Miami Dolphins,
and you see that chipping chips can be won in the trenches,
and this draft is gonna prove it for the Dolphins.
Until you guys draft,
save your worthy with your first overall pick
in the first round,
because McDaniel needs speed on that offense.
You guys aren't gonna be able to resist.
I know.
Brandon.
How's it going, guys?
Thanks for having me back again this year.
A little more humbled than I was last year.
Now that the Patriots have scored the fewest amount of points
of all 32 NFL teams, but happy to be here.
And Dan, give us a primer on your jets.
JJ, there are a lot of needs
that the New Jersey Jets have coming into this year's draft.
No more prominent to me than punter.
So I will be looking early and often
at that key special teams position,
particularly with the stop-dent pick.
No, I'm gonna play it straight for our friend, Jared, here.
We talked in case you didn't get a chance to hear it
a couple of months back,
and the immediate aftermath of the Chiefs winning
yet another Super Bowl,
we did our first run,
a round of friends of the pod, not friends of the Bills,
and Jared humbly went first there.
And he really did a meticulous job
kind of laying out what the Jets needed.
And I'm gonna kind of follow his game plan
that he laid out then.
So hopefully it's gonna be a good,
but not too good draft for the New York Aaron Rodgers.
Excellent.
Let's this thing off.
Dan is gonna be running our board here.
So you're gonna expect to hear him popping in and out
as we direct these picks
and move down through this image.
All right, so for everybody listening at home,
we are drafting using the PFF mock draft simulator.
There's a lot of good mock draft Sims out there.
We simply prefer PFF
because it allows for some pretty reasonable trade-ups
that really do mimic the real-life situations
that we think we're gonna face
in the draft itself here in the next couple of days.
And it also gives a variety of kind of tweaking options.
We pretty much play all of the settings here,
right along the middle of the board,
except randomness.
We tend to tune down a little bit
to give you the listeners the most realistic kind of outcomes
that we think will be available on the board
for each of these four AFC East teams.
As JJ mentioned, we are allowing trades both up and down.
I'll be managing the board
in addition to managing the Jets.
Brandon will be picking for his AFC East team
we'll be picking for his AFC East,
former AFC East great New England Patriots.
And then we've got Steve drafting for the Miami Dolphins.
Three rounds and three rounds only
to see what we can get done here.
Are you guys ready to go?
I see thumbs up across the board.
All right.
So we are gonna go ahead
and we're gonna hop into the draft simulator here.
Now for those of you listening at home,
we've got this speed set to super slow
to allow for a couple of things.
One, the ability to trade up and pause the draft
if anyone is interested in doing so.
But two, we really wanna debate and talk about
what the impact of these potential picks could be.
JJ and I have been in our bag in draft season
for the past few months now.
And this is gonna give us a chance to dive deeply
into some prospects who are probably not attainable
for the bills, but will have an impact in the AFC East
should they go to one of our rivals.
So if you guys are ready,
we are gonna get it started here.
All right.
And no surprise, Chicago Bears go QB.
Washington commanders also go QB.
So Brandon, both Caleb Williams and Drake May
off the board here for you.
And your New England Patriots here with pick three.
The world, however, my friend is your oyster
with tons of blue trick prospects available.
And you also have five trade offers for this pick as well.
Brandon, where do you wanna start here, my friend?
I can filter all these by position
so you can have a look at the players
that are on the big board for a particular position
in either you have or I can pull up your trades.
What do you want me to do?
Can you start by pulling up the trades
because I think that's the way that I'm leaning right now.
And let me know what the best offer is.
Interesting.
So you've got a trade here for number five
is the first pick here from the Los Angeles Chargers.
After that, the New York Giants are interested
in trading up with you from pick six to pick three.
You've got the Seattle Seahawks
who wanna come up from 16 to six.
The Ravens wanna come up from 30.
And then you've got the Cleveland Browns
who don't have a first round pick this year.
They're picking in the second round
thanks to the DeSean Watson trade
that just keeps on giving.
So they wanna trade up all the way from 54 to three
which I don't think has been done in NFL history.
The amount of capital that it would take to go from there
to a top 10 pick is unreal to me.
So Brandon, what do you wanna evaluate here first?
Now how this works is you can select
the team you wanna trade with.
You will work the compensation that you think is fair.
And then we'll take a couple of cracks,
four cracks to be specific at making a trade.
If the trade is rejected on the simulator
four times in a row, then the trade is dead
and you gotta pick a player.
Okay, all right, so I'm interested in this fifth pick
from the chargers.
So what do I have to give up to make that possible?
Well, let's see.
So I'm right down here and this is great podcasting
for all the folks at home that are audio only.
Right here, percentage trade acceptance on both sides
once teams add picks.
So you want the five pick, four, the three pick.
And this is a lopsided pick.
So you're gonna wanna throw something else in there.
So you've got a second rounder at 37.
You've got the ability to trade
for a future first rounder from them as well.
You could also select a player.
May I humbly suggest also asking for their 2025
first round pick and see what that does.
Yes, let's see what that does.
83% chance to be accepted.
My friend, I think you could also maybe throw
in a third round pick this year too.
Wanna try that?
This 69th?
Yep.
Let's see what happens.
Goes all the way down to 39%.
Not impossible to get it by, but still.
And I think the reason here is because you're really
trading a high premium pick for a high premium pick.
Interesting that they wanna draft up this high
with the QB in lock.
My guess is they want Marvin Harris and Junior
before the Cardinals have a chance to draft.
So go ahead and hit offer trade and see what happens.
Okay.
And you have an accepted trade.
So the trade on the books right now is New England
giving up the three.
They get the five and 69 this year
and they get a future first round pick
from the Los Angeles Chargers.
All right, so resuming the draft,
let's see what they end up doing with this.
Malik neighbors.
Man.
And then Marvin Harris and Junior here
going to the Cardinals at four.
So now you are back on the clock here.
You still have Roma Dunes a here.
You still have Joe Alt,
who is the premier tackle on this draft.
You got a lot of options here
and you also have some trade back potential as well.
Still here at pick five.
What do you wanna do here, Brandon?
I really think we need that help at tackle.
There's a lot of talent in this class
at wide receiver and quarterback.
So what I wanna do here is take Joe Alt with us this
and see where we go from there.
Joe.
All right.
So our first official pick is in
and Joe Alt is making his way
to the New England Patriots.
JJ, I personally hate that pick
because it's really good.
And you could argue that at that spot,
Alt might be a little overvalued,
but when you look at how decrepit
that New England offensive line was last season
to get a blue chip tackle prospect
that's gonna anchor the left side
of your offensive line for years to come.
I mean, as a Bills fan,
we have struggled in recent years
to come up with a consistent pass rush
and having a guy like Alt to go up against two times a year
just makes that job harder.
So my thought process,
we just re-signed on Wendell to a very expensive three year,
I think 57 million dollar deal
and Sandra Bullock said it best,
but you gotta protect the blind side.
So on Wendell's grade on the right,
we need somebody on the left
for whoever's gonna be under center,
throwing balls to KJ Osborne, our new top receiver.
Fantastic.
And you still have the opportunity, as you have said,
to kinda jam around a little bit
and find something viable later on
at wide receiver and the skill positions as well.
So no, I think a pick well made.
JJ, what were your thoughts on that one?
Oh, just that, you know,
I'm frustrated that the Patriots in this simulation
not only get the absolute best offensive line
in the entire draft,
but then they also get a first round next year
and a third round this year.
That's just like the rich get richer,
just stack that up with your super bowl victories.
Yeah, and this is the thing that,
and Brandon, this goes back to when we did our initial
Friends of the Pod segment together.
Like this has been something
that I've been harping on for a while.
New England's got so many needs
to bring in a top three QB prospect right now
feels a little bit like not doing,
being a good steward of resources.
Trading back, still potentially being able
to get your QB of the future.
And develop more and have more kind of darts
to throw at the dartboard as far as skill position players go.
I think is the way that New England should go.
I mean, ideally Brandon, you guys would never have
to have a pick this high again anyway
if you're doing your job correctly.
So trading back and accumulating more assets to me
is striking while the iron is hot.
So I love that and I love slash hate the pick of Joel.
So let's see what happened here, New York.
So we are on the New Jersey Jets.
The New York Giants selected Kinyan Mitchell,
the quarterback out of Toledo, excellent prospect.
Brock Bowers comes off the board to Tennessee.
Tackle Tleis Fouaga from Oregon State
who's got inside outside versatility,
comes off the board to the Atlanta Falcons,
which is a little weird
because the Falcons really need edge help desperately.
But they go offensive tackle here, which, okay.
Byron Murphy, this feels a little high for him.
Defense of interior player from Texas
goes number nine to the Chicago Bears.
The Bears are a place, as we all know,
if you follow any kind of mock draft simulations
or mock draft reports,
is where a lot of teams have Roma Dunes a going.
This guy's comp to me as Kenan Allen
and he is sitting here at number 10 for a team
that desperately needs a number two wide receiver
and is also in win now mode in the New York Jets.
So for me guys, I'm going Roma Dunes a for the Jets.
Bowers is off the board, not an option, could go tackle here.
The next best tackle on here is Washington's Troy,
I'm always mess up this guy's name.
Fautanu.
Fautanu, thank you.
Troy Fautanu.
You also have Fautanu out of Penn State
and JC Latham, both available on the board.
10 is probably a little high for both of those guys.
And again, this is a squad that's in win now mode.
We have Garrett Wilson and Roma Dunes a
on either side of the ball.
Roma Dunes a, he just catches everything
like a magnet that's thrown his way.
Aaron Raj is going to love a target like this.
And I would argue that even Nathaniel Hackett
could not mess up a duo like Wilson and a Dunes a.
So here we go Jets taking a Dunes a with the number 10 pick.
Thought about their guys trading back for a second round pick
because the Jets as we know as a result of the Rogers trade
do not have one in this year's draft.
So they're not going to pick again until pick 72
in the third round.
But to me, all is well with that.
They get a premiere wide out and regardless of what happens
this season in New York, should everybody get fired
it be a disaster of a season.
They've got two great foundational building blocks
at the skill positions to build off of next year
in addition to breeze salt.
So to me, it's a win all the way around.
All right, Steve, my friend, we are here at the Miami Dolphins.
And I absolutely hate all of the options you have available to you.
This is like if this board falls this way to you,
this is your most ideal situation because you've got needs
and both trenches, you also need wide receiver depth
and edge couldn't hurt either.
And man, do you have some options here?
So I've got the board in the top five up here.
You've got Johnny Newton from Illinois available.
You've got Dallas Turner edge from Alabama,
AD Mitchell and Brian Thomas, Jr.
both available wide receiver.
And then my my Creed Humphrey of the Strath,
Graham Barton, the do everything offensive linemen out of Duke.
You also have four trade options available to you too, Steve.
So how do you want to play this?
Well, first and foremost, can I just say it absolutely
pains me to see the two previous picks
come off the board right before the dolphins?
Fatah Nuh, Fashah Nuh and Mims, Amarius Mims.
Yeah, like, you know, those I think about, you know,
building in the trenches, like those were the three guys that,
you know, I'm like, all right, one of them drop, you know, a couple of them just wasn't there.
So I think I'm going to pivot a little bit and look on the defensive side.
Can train to this.
Do you need a sort?
You want me to sort my position here?
Just sort through for
here is a defensive line.
Absolutely.
Yep, I'll go defensive interior and I will add edge to that too.
Perfect.
There you go.
So these are your top defensive interior linemen and edge players available here.
I mean, you got two rock solid options here on the on the defensive side of the ball.
Yeah.
And it makes me happy that you're going to pass on a guy like Graham Barton
if that is in fact where you decide to go.
So I'm looking at Dallas Turner here at edge.
Why?
Just looking at the PFF simulator average draft pack,
why he fell down so far if he'd set 12.
It's a little bit of randomness.
OK.
And those tackles went higher even in the same night.
Yeah.
Could you flip back over to the tackle?
Absolutely.
You want offensive tackle?
Yeah.
You got it.
We got OT and I'll throw.
You also have Anita guard.
So I'm going to throw interior line one pier as well.
Oh, God, the embarrassment of riches at this position.
JJ, look at all that beef, man.
I know. I love it.
I just said I'm salivating.
So just for all of you at home while Steve is mulling his options here,
he's got his pick of Graham Barton, Jackson Powers Johnson,
centered out of Oregon, Zach Frazier, who, listen,
on PFF is ranked 33rd average draft position of 41.1.
To me, Zach Frazier is the first round talent.
I think it's a little he's a little bit undersold for his versatility at guard.
He is not just a straight up center candidate.
And he to me is Creed Humphrey clone, like Zach Frazier out of West Virginia is incredible.
Jordan Morgan, Traetze kid out of Arizona, Tyler Guyton tackle out of Oklahoma available.
And I think honestly, you can make an argument that any one of these folks,
Barton, Jackson Powers Johnson, Frazier, Morgan or Guyton,
maybe this is high for Morgan, but you could make an argument
that the other four absolutely suitable based on your team needs here.
You know, I think when you look at some of his versatility
on the line, we need that.
You know, I think what I'm looking at here,
positions at center, but can also play
guard.
So I think that's a good point.
I think that's a good point.
We also play guard if he needs to.
And the reality is who knows what injuries are going to bring to our offensive line yet again.
And so just trying to pay kind of best guy that could have some versatility there.
So that's what I'm going with.
Love it. I love it.
And I think, too, if Armstead can't make it through a full season, which he has
him in a while, Barton can be a guy that flashes to the outside.
He can start immediately for the squad at guard.
He can pop in at center, depending on what happens there for you guys.
This is just this is a Swiss army knife of an offensive lineman.
And he will serve your Miami Dolphins well.
Yes. All right, JJ.
Now is the time and you see who is on the board right off at the top.
All right.
So here's my here's my justification for what I'm what I'm about to say.
I know that all of Bill's mafia will be like, Oh, my gosh, Brian Thomas,
Jr. has fallen to 28 is available.
The somewhat, you know,
agreed upon fourth best wide receiver on the board is there.
And yet I am somewhat perplexed by this because I do want the Buffalo Bills to have
a third round pick one to I.
The fact that Brian Thomas fell tells me that not a lot of wide receiver talent
after the top three went.
And so that means there's more available in the second.
Can you scroll up real quick and let me just kind of give a quick synopsis of
who among the wide receivers has gone on the on the round list to left?
Yep. Absolutely.
I think it's I think it's just the top three and 80 Mitchell.
Yeah. So with that, let me see the trade downs because that means that
you have 80 Mitchell went to the Vikings.
Yeah. Only four of the wide receiver talents in the whole draft have gone
in the first round instead of the eight that they're expecting.
And so let me let me look at the trades.
Baltimore at 30.
Will they give me their 62.
Or their 93.
Sixty for 28. Yeah.
Let's see.
They are not going to give you 62.
What about 93?
You got a 59 percent chance at 93.
Do you want to throw in even though we're not going to use it in this draft?
Do you want to throw in another fifth round or maybe?
Sure.
Yeah. Doesn't do too much craziness to it.
All right. Let's offer that.
All right. So we stay in the first round, but we add a much needed third round pick here.
So let's see what happens.
And they have accepted.
So the Buffalo Bills will be taking picks 30, 93 and 130 in the draft.
And the Ravens will trade up two spots to get.
Troy Franklin,
led, Mckonkey goes.
Oh, my God.
So I get.
Played. I get a third.
I get a third rounder and Brian Thomas, Jr. Send it.
Send it.
Oh, my God.
There is no way draft day works out like this.
No, no, absolutely not.
But I will absolutely take it.
All right, my friend, Brandon, we have now hit the second round.
Zach Frazier, sadly off the board, Ed, Edis, Isaac from Edge from Penn State,
Tyler Guyton also go Troy Franklin and Lad Mckonkey before Brian Thomas, Jr.
JJ. Oh, my.
What a steal.
What a randomness.
What a steal.
I've said it to you.
I think Lad Mckonkey is probably the pick for the Bills in the first round.
And I think they go to try to get their X in the second or even or even trading up into the third.
I think they like Mckonkey a lot and his separation ability.
But damn, Brian Thomas, Jr.
and a third rounder.
Freaking men that it's also interesting that the the Ravens in the simulation
traded up to get Troy Franklin because there's like I know it's lying season,
but there's all this rumbling out there that Brandon Bean and the Bills brass is
very high on Troy Franklin.
Yeah, yeah, very interesting.
Interesting to see how much of this actually plays out in real life here.
All right.
So now we're at pick 34 for our New England Patriots expert, Brandon.
All right, Brandon, how do you want to play this, sir?
You've got you've got some you've got the ability here to take QB of the future.
You could also address offensive line again, should you need to.
And then you've got the ability to tackle some skill positions here as well.
Again, the world is your oyster, sir, and you've got two trade options available to you.
Yep. So I know what I'm going to do here.
I see Bo Nex on the board.
He's going to learn behind Jacobi Bresset for the next year.
I'll remind everybody listening on the pod that Bresset was originally drafted by the Patriots in 2016.
He's coming back on a one year deal.
We need a quarterback to the future.
So we're going to be taking Bo next year.
Love it.
I love it.
And if this plays out this way on draft day for you, I mean,
what a coup for the the New England Patriots to get offensive tackle their QB of the future
and still have so many bullets on day two and day three of the draft to really augment their
skill positions here.
Really. I mean, great stuff, Brandon.
God, I hope it doesn't work out this this neat and tidy for you on draft day.
All right.
So now we are back to our good friend, Steve.
All right, Steve, you're picking at 55 here.
And as of right now, this is your last pick in the draft because the Dolphins do not have a third
rounder this year.
You do have one trade option available to you.
So what do you want to do?
You want to make a pick or you want to get some more bullets for the gun here?
Let's take a look at the edge players that are beating.
My friend knows exactly what he wants.
I love it.
Well, the reality is Bradley Chubb and Jalen Phillips are, you know, no go for, you know,
much of the next season.
And so you need somebody to support there.
You know, a little bit younger, come in right away and just just go.
No, I agree.
And so much wide.
And you guys need wide receiver depth too, but so much talent has come off the board.
Leggette's off the board, went to Atlanta.
Ricky Piersol goes to Las Vegas.
Tight end.
Jattavian Sanders from Texas goes to the Saints.
Yeah, I mean, Roman Wilson goes to the Steelers.
Malachi Corley goes to the Browns.
I agree.
I think it'd be a reach for a wide receiver here.
And I got to tell you, you got one of my favorite players on the draft sitting
staring you're right in the face and Marchand Nieland from Western Michigan.
But you also have Jonah Ellis at Utah on the board, Chris Braswell, Xavier Thomas is there.
And then Jalix Hunt out of Houston Christian.
So.
55, I think you could make an argument for Nieland, Braswell or Ellis based on draft
failure here.
But what do you think?
And you want to do here?
I think Nieland's the way to go.
Absolutely.
God, you get two of my favorite players in this draft and Graham Barton and Marchand Nieland.
Oh my God, may it not work out this well for you.
So, you know, Steve, interesting, you decided to attack the trenches there as opposed to
going for skill positions.
I have a sneaking suspicion that McDaniel can't help himself and is going to draft a wide
receiver with one of your first two picks.
What do you think the likelihood is that the dolphins will actually realize their
deficiency in the trenches and go the way you went?
I mean, the reality is we have two phenomenal wide receivers in Waddle and Hill.
You know, Hill coming off what could have been a record setting year in many ways, but
then right behind them from a depth chart perspective, you have guys that can fulfill
different roles within their team.
So I'm trying to pull draft.
Depth chart, if you're real quick.
Yeah, you've got guys like Braxton Berrios.
Braxton Berrios, right.
You know, and Braxton Berrios or Craft.
They're kind of specialty guys, depending on the setup and everything.
Having Joni Smith at tight end getting him for this year, I think is going to help out
tremendously.
And so to me, just waiting, I think there's enough there to keep you moving in a good
positive direction.
You know, and I think too, Alec Engel is going to be a very good, very good, very good,
is going to be a very interesting player for next year for us as well.
Just thinking about that extra protection for Tua, knowing that if one of our starting
guys gets injured, he's going to have to help block a little bit to continue to do that.
But in terms of the wide receiver, when you look at the final game against Kansas, granted,
you know, everything that could have went wrong, the last three, four games went wrong
for the dolphins.
But they were exploited in the trenches on both sides.
I mean, Kansas City just dominated them.
And to me, like, I just don't see how you can overlook that.
Yeah, no.
I mean, listen, it's, it is valid.
It's something that JJ and I, for the bills, have been harping on for years to build kind
of in the trenches.
And I think they've been less than successful for the past few seasons with the exception
of the offensive line this past year.
So no, you can never go wrong throwing premium picks at big uglies.
Yeah.
You know, and I feel like a broken record last year at this time talking about the draft,
you know, I same thing, got to protect Tua, got to win it in the trenches because of injuries
and guess what happened?
Injuries yet again, please, you know, the trenches.
And so just keep rebooting, you got, you got your guys, you know, you got your star cast.
Now just go win it.
And that's going to be done to be offensive and defensive wide.
Absolutely.
And cheap contracts in the trenches as you're about to pay your franchise QB all assume
into a, I mean, it never hurts to have talent in the trenches on really affordable contracts.
So two great picks for you, even if you don't have another third round or coming to you.
All right, JJ.
The bills are on the clock and I've pulled up all positions I assume you're going to
want to look at, which is wide receiver, OT and defensive interior.
Well, you didn't pull up edge.
So failed.
No, I couldn't reach your mind.
I'm so sorry.
I could not.
No, it's all right.
Yeah, I just wanted to get a look at.
Do you want safety here too?
Sure.
And we're scrolling.
So you're worthy of sitting here.
Well, as you guys were talking about the Dolphins building the trenches, I was just like, well,
maybe the bills are just going to try to get it for our area out of the garage with Xavier
were worthy of your Jermaine Burton.
Although I heard some worrying things about Jermaine Burton might be a kind of personality
problem.
So yeah, we're not going to go with, you know, Xavier worthy or Tes Walker or any of those
deep threats.
I think the pick here for the bills is going to end up, they're going to probably turn
to the trenches.
And so I'm going to go ahead if you want to scroll up to the top of the list.
I'm going to take Jonah Ellis out of Utah.
Defensive end.
He's the we know the bills really like Utah.
They know a little bit about him from drafting Dalton concade.
And so I think that's that's a good pick.
They're going to start to lean towards the trenches now that they have Brian Thomas,
Jr. Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Yeah, no, I couldn't agree with you more.
And here on the board, Chris Braswell, Adrian Cooper go right after that pick.
A couple other noteworthy picks here.
Christian Haynes, guard out a Connecticut, which a lot of bills fans like goes to Washington
in the third round.
Xavier worthy third round to Arizona.
All right.
So now Brandon, you get to pick back to back.
My friend, 68 and 69.
What would you like me to you have no trade options, at least none that you none that
are being offered to you.
So what do you want to look at here?
You've got your QB.
You've got your tackle.
You want to start looking at some skill positions here in the third round.
I'm going to be taking a wide receiver here.
And you've got good options on the board, man.
You really do.
Yvontes Walker out of North Carolina, Javon Baker, who is one of my favorite pass catchers
here in this draft.
Jalen, Jalen McMillan out of Washington.
You've got Jamari Thrash out of Louisville.
Man, you've got some you got some real options here in the third round.
What do you want to do?
Um, I think I'll just take the best option in Jermaine Burton.
And then if you don't mind, we're going to switch over to once we pick up him.
We're going to pick up.
What do you want to look at next?
The best player on the board.
Best player on the board right now is Kieran, a Meg Dijay out of Yale.
Okay.
Thank you.
I just I just asked that question so I could hear you pronounce the last name.
I did it.
You did pretty good.
Oh, wow.
You want to double dip at QB and take Spencer Rattler who's still on the board?
No, I don't.
I do not want to do that.
I mean, what have you addressed?
You've addressed tackle QB and wide receiver.
I would argue that you guys also maybe have an edge need to though.
I don't know how good the value is here in the third round.
Yeah.
And your guys and your guys offensive line was so bad last year.
It almost might not even hurt just to put through multiple bullets there.
You've got Cooper BB and Mason McCormick available Kansas State and South Dakota State respectively.
I really like BB is an interior guy.
You guys need help all over that line.
Mason McCormick also has some inside outside versatility on the offensive line too.
Two of my favorite players ignore the 93 and 95 draft rankings from PFF.
These are guys who could easily go in the third round.
Okay.
Why don't we throw a dart on Mason McCormick?
Yeah.
I love the I love these South Dakota State kids, man.
All FCS all the time.
That's a hell of a draft for you, sir.
All right.
And now we're back to the jets who have addressed wide receiver and still have multiple deficiencies
in other areas.
So we've got tackle defensive interior I want to kick around with.
I'm not so worried about their secondary or their defense.
Some interior help would be nice, but to me it's all about the offense for the New Jersey
jets.
Now, I know they've done some things in the off season with the offensive line and trying
to bolster that.
But a lot of it, one year contracts, rental talent, injury prone talent, they're going
to need some young affordable depth here.
So I'm going to go with we've got a couple of tackles available here.
We've got a Meg DJ out of Yale who's available.
We have Brandon Coleman, TCU Blake Fisher out of Notre Dame, who I've mocked a couple
of times to the bills in certain situations.
And then after that, it's looking really, really thin at tackle.
BB could be an interesting option for them too, especially depending on the health of
Elijah Vera Tucker.
I am going to go here though with Blake Fisher out of Notre Dame.
I just think his, his, uh, hand fighting is really advanced.
I like the style of offensive line skills and traits that they try to teach at Notre
Dame.
I think you can never go wrong with taking an offensive lineman from Notre Dame and
Fisher to me as a ton of upside and honestly could go earlier on day two in the second
round.
So I'm going to go ahead and with the final pick for the New Jersey jets, I want to take
one Blake Fisher.
All right.
So now we are moving on to the final pick in our three round mock draft.
Number 93 Savvy traded for by JJ Brandon Bean to get back into the third round here.
All right.
So JJ, what do you want me to pull up here for you with our final pick?
Um, just running back running back and safety.
Okay, that's better.
Okay.
We can, we can still pod together.
Okay.
All right.
Excuse, what happened to Jordan Poyer?
What do you mean?
You need a safety.
Yeah, no, he's going to play 11 games for you guys this year.
That's the don't, you know, don't sweat it.
Um, I enjoy as an aside, like I have to just make this tangent go.
Um, as an aside, uh, Jordan Poyer was on, um, the centered on Buffalo podcast with, um,
uh, Derek Wood and Eric, one of Eric Wood's bonus questions for him is, okay, it's like
work week 15, you and the, you know, dolphins are up in Buffalo in the snow and Josh Allen
splits a seam up the middle, you know, running the ball and you are alone.
What are you do?
And I thought that, uh, Poyer handled the question famously.
I mean, he said, I'm going to get him to the ground.
I don't know how and I don't want that situation, but I will get him to the ground somehow.
All right.
So, but that aside, aside, um, the reason I wanted you to bring up safeties and running
back is because I think in this round for this draft for the bills, if they can check
the box of defensive linemen and, uh, wide and premier wide receiver, their next biggest
need is to is the safety position, even though they re signed, um, you know, uh, Taylor,
uh, wrap, uh, Taylor wrap and Mike and they signed Mike Edwards away from the chiefs,
even though with those two signings for starting safety caliber players, I think they need
to plan for the future because that's a, um, wraps contract is a three year that's really
kind of a one year and Mike Edwards is a one year, um, minimum value.
So, um, I love daydream Taylor Demerson out of Texas tech for safety.
He's kind of that deep kind of, you know, um, center fielder type safety.
Um, I like cam kitchens, even though his testing was not so great.
Uh, and you know, there's a lot of safeties in this kind of range in the draft that I
think would be good shown.
Valkyrie might be able to play running back for you cold Bishop out of Utah.
Do we double dipping Utah?
Um, I know that that's your, your boy, Dan, cold bishops, my number one safety in this
draft, this ranking of one 32 is absurd on PFF Malik, Mustafa as well.
I don't think is ever going to be there this late in the third round.
Um, so I say all that, but I will say I trust the process with Brandon Bean and Sean McDermott
being able to get defensive backfield players in later rounds.
And in this reality, the bills have an extra, I think three fours now with that trade I
made.
And so, um, we're going to go with Breyland Allen.
Whoa.
Coming back out of Wisconsin.
Oh my God, you're drunk at the wheel, sir.
No, no, no, because they need a, they need a past protecting giant tank of a running
back.
They don't have that right now in the backfield and he's going to be playing every, you know,
every snap, safety's only get thrown at every soft.
Oh, okay.
All right.
I will, uh, I am forced to click on that.
So there it is.
All right.
Let's analyze here what we did.
All right.
So full results, your results.
Let me see my first round.
All right.
So not bad.
Brandon, your takeaways from this draft, great trade down.
You solidify the future of that offensive line with Joe Alt.
You solidify the future of the, of QB with bone X potentially, but also because you've
taken him in the second round, I'll, I will lavish last season in Tennessee.
He also no pressure to start.
He can play behind your Kobe percent and figure stuff out.
You addressed skill position and you addressed, um, what was the other position you nabbed?
I forget full results.
If you want to scroll up.
See, we got an edge.
Yep.
You're not getting edge.
Yeah, that's right.
I mean, Brandon, how you feeling about your draft?
How would you feel if this is the way it shook out for your boys on draft day?
Um, I don't know, uh, because I think the Patriots have so many needs.
It's a really difficult question that I'm glad that I'm not in a realistic position to
have to answer because I think these guys are drafting for their jobs to be quite honest.
Um, and if they don't get it right, then, um, you know, the coaching personnel, uh,
is probably going to change again.
Um, and so you think one and done for mail?
I think if this year ends up being a total bus like last year, then I think that's a
real possibility.
Yeah.
Oh, wow.
Um, you know, even as I traded down, like I had, you know, I had a lot of, you know,
I traded down like I had the question of whether or not I should have taken, um, Marvin
Harrison, Jr. Um, or gone for, you know, Drake may, if he was still on the board, um,
or even JJ McCarthy, you know, like the quarterback position is obviously very important.
Um, but I also feel like very rarely does a first round quarterback hit.
And so there's just so many needs, you know, trading down, taking the best tackle with
Joe Alts, um, with the fifth overall pick, I feel was a big win.
And then, you know, Bo Nix, um, has a lot of going for him in terms of accuracy and decision
making.
I think he's a really smart player.
Um, and if we can get the ball to the hands of KJ Osborne, um, other receivers in New England,
then I think we'll be okay.
Yeah.
No, I think solid all the way around.
I would hate this draft if it actually, if it actually came out in real life.
Yeah.
Um, Steve made the most out of your two picks again, building in the trenches.
Um, I love the Nealon pick and I love the Graham Barton pick, right?
I know you didn't get a chance to draft a third round, but what's the type?
What would have been your next pick for this squad?
If you had had a third round bullet in the chamber, would you have gone skill position
or wide receiver or would you have gone somewhere else?
I'd gone wide receiver.
I would.
Um, I think because there's potential like in terms of cliff and everything in terms
of talent and third round, I think is where you could still get some really good value,
um, and find some good talent there.
Um, not saying rounds four through seven, you can't.
Um, but you know, we address offensive line, we address the defensive line.
Now you know, let's see what's out there as far as wide receiver is concerned.
Um, or do you look again to draft, uh, maybe a linebacker, you know, some, you know, something,
uh, to help fill another void, depending on best available.
Yep.
Absolutely.
And then JJ, uh, man, loved your draft.
And for Braille and Allen, that one, man, in the third round, you are, uh, you're making
the Zach Mock's Moss pick look, uh, look a little look really good there.
But I appreciate the rationale that you put behind it.
Braille and Allen over all those safeties though, really.
So yes, yes.
And because, and this is why, because the bills have so much day three ammunition, I'm
just taking a flyer that DB's will be more available because Braille and Allen for me
is a top five running back in the draft.
Um, and I think that he's a talent who he's basically the exact body type and skill set
that they've needed to compliment James Cook for the past two years.
And they don't have to mess around with, you know, um, Ezekiel Elliott on a one year deal
or anything like that.
He can bring somebody in on a cost controlled deal and he can even take over for Cook, you
know, if they'd chose not to resign him as they didn't with Devin Singletary being it's
an under, it's an undervalued position in the league during free agency.
Yeah.
No, I mean, the rationale works for sure.
Um, all, all the way around rock solid drafts.
We didn't get a chance to talk about the Jets draft too much, but I think just nabbing
a dunes a and of itself and then a rock solid tackle on Blake Fisher.
I think New Jersey fans would be ecstatic at that.
Um, again, a dunes a my compass, Keenan Allen, Aaron Rogers could use a nice young target
that just catches everything thrown his way.
I would take a ton of pressure off of Garrett Wilson.
So all the way around, I think scary stuff.
Teams in the AFC East would get markedly better if this is how the draft would end up being
for sure.
But yeah, crazy stuff.
Guys, listen, we're wrapping up here.
I really appreciate everybody hopping on to do our, what has become an annual tradition
of friends of the pod, not friends of the bills, AFC East mock draft.
As JJ noted earlier, we are days away from the trap.
So this episode will be posting on a Tuesday.
And then if you tune back in on Sunday evening post draft, you can get our breakdown of not
just the bills, but all of the AFC East picks that ended up going down in three days of
the draft.
So a little bit of a scheduling shift here for Buffalo bread, but we appreciate you sticking
with us for all of you listening at home.
Like share and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, Google Apple Spotify.
As always, go bills.