It has been hard to gauge which direction the Buffalo Bills will go in during next month’s NFL Draft. An offensive lineman, wide receiver or a tight end all make sense with the No. 9 pick.
Perhaps the Bills have an idea in mind, though.
Buffalo general manager Doug Whaley told WGR-AM radio in Buffalo Friday that he hasn’t ruled out a trade to move up in the first round to acquire the right player.
“Not a problem as long as it’s not detrimental to our team down the road. It’s going to be a calculated risk,” said Whaley, in response to whether the Bills are open to moving up. “But if we think this guy is going to get us over the hump and get us into the playoffs, which is our stated goal , then why not make the deal?”
“The way we set up our board there are a certain amount of players that we won’t trade away from and then there are a certain amount of players where if the opportunity presents itself we’ll trade up to go get and there’s also a mark where we will trade down to. So there are all different situations. We don’t know how it’s going to fall, but if you prepare for every event you should be ready and there should be no panic.”
Back in March, when it rumored the Houston Texans were “trying hard” to deal the first overall pick, the Bills were named as a potential trading partner. According to Bleacher Report, the Bills were contemplating a move up in order to nab either a quarterback, offensive tackle Greg Robinson or edge rushers Jadeveon Clowney and Khalil Mack.
Whaley denied interest in selecting a quarterback in the first round for a second consecutive year, stating the team is “all in” on E.J. Maniel. He acknowledged, however, surrounding Manuel with more weapons could be a factor if and when the team makes a trade up.
“Sometimes you have to bring in a dimension that you don’t have and a size receiver is a dimension that we don’t have,” Whaley said. “It would help EJ just because he can find that guy anywhere and also EJ can basically throw up the ball and you’ve got a 6-5 guy with 35-inch arms and 30-plus vertical, that’s a big target that you can have down the field. So that’s an exciting thing.”
Whaley named former Texas A&M wide receiver Mike Evans as a potential fit. Evans, who stands 6-foot-5 and 231 pounds, is the consensus No. 2 wide receiver in the class behind only Sammy Watkins.
Evans is penciled to come off the board seventh overall to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the XN Sports Mock Draft 2.0. Both the San Francisco 49ers and the New York Giants have had rumored interest in trading up to nab Evans in recent weeks.
