By Nick Wojton / Billswire.usatoday.com
The Buffalo Bills brought in a lot of new faces already this offseason. When free agency opened, even prior to that, the team recognized a need for change, and change there will be.
With multiple additions in the trenches and new faces in playmaking groups on both sides of the ball, it’s harder to see where exactly the Bills’ draft needs are – which is a good thing.
But the football analytics outlet Pro Football Focus (PFF) took a stab at it anyway. PFF tabbed edge rusher, tight end and cornerback the Bills’ top needs.
Here’s what PFF’s Cam Mellor said about Buffalo’s draft needs:
The Bills knew they had an area of weakness on their defense at edge when they went out and signed Trent Murphy from the Redskins a year ago. However, Murphy struggled in his first year with the Bills and mustered just 21 total QB pressures. With Jerry Hughes set to be 31 at the season’s opener, and even after a career year from him, the Bills would be best suited to get someone who can wreak havoc on opposing offenses early in the draft. Providing an additional pass-rusher from the edge would only free Hughes up more and allow him to excel perhaps even more so than the 74 total pressures he accumulated a season ago. Elsewhere on defense, the Bills saw Levi Wallace become a revelation at cornerback and while they signed Kevin Johnson and E.J. Gaines this offseason, it is indeterminable to know which version of Johnson they’ll receive with his injury concerns or what they’ll get with Gaines, who logged only 181 snaps with a subpar performance in his season with the Browns.
The Bills are in a position to draft the best player in their eyes at the 2019 draft. That’s the position general manager Brandon Beane wanted to put the Bills in. All three positions by PFF could be considered areas in need of improvement, but it can be argued that cornerback isn’t the biggest of needs as PFF suggested.
In Gaines, Johnson and Wallace, Buffalo’s battle for the No. 2 cornerback spot is packed already. Instead, the Bills more likely have bigger needs at defensive tackle or at wide receiver, specifically a bigger target to complement their quicker playmakers.