Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) - The 2025 NFL Draft wrapped up over the weekend and the Buffalo Bills added nine new players to their roster across all three days of the draft.
Bills general manager Brandon Beane joined the "Jeremy and Joe Show" on Monday morning and was ready right off the top to talk with Jeremy White and Joe DiBiase about the "wide receiver train".
"We just scored 30 points in a row for eight straight games. A year ago, I get you guys asking why we didn't have receivers, but I don't understand it now. You just saw us lead the league in points, when you add all the postseason[points], no one scored more points than the Buffalo Bills, including the Super Bowl champions. So you just saw us do it without Stefon Diggs, same group. How is this group not better than last year's group? Our job is to score points and win games. Where do we need to get better, defense? We did that, so I get it. You got to have a show. You got to have something to bitch about. But bitching about wide receiver is one of the dumbest arguments I've heard."
Earlier this offseason the team signed wide receiver Joshua Palmer to a three year deal worth 29 million dollars. Along with that, the team also has six receivers returning to their locker room from last year including Khalil Shakir and Keon Coleman.
"Let's be realistic. Our job is not fantasy football, to trot out the best receivers. You got Josh Allen, first thing you got to do is protect him. You can't have everything. You can't have Pro Bowl wide receivers and have a Pro Bowl offensive line and an All Pro quarterback and three great running backs like. Sure, I'd love to play fantasy football, but there's one football, Jeremy, there's one ball you can't give it to so many people. So that's where I'm like, I don't understand this narrative. I felt it a little bit from a couple of the reporters. Our job is to score points. It doesn't matter what receivers, what quarterback, if you score points at the level we scored, that is winning football."
Out of the nine picks the Bills held in this year's draft they only drafted one receiver, Kaden Prather out of Maryland, with the 240th overall pick in the seventh round. While this year's class was not perceived to be as strong as last year, there were still opportunities for the Bills to draft a wide receiver throughout the draft.
"As you get to a certain point in the board, you're going, alright, how does this guy help? If there was a guy, when we picked it the first round that we're like, yes, this guy's dynamic. He's going to fit here, we would have turned it in. And the second round, we would have done it. We went up and got TJ, we weren't dodging receiver. We were going in, hey, we had the guys stacked where it was. I didn't think it was the deepest class. I'll say that, but yeah, if it would have worked out, I would have gladly done it. But I'm trying to make sure we got the best team, not the best receiving core."
In 2023, the Bills drafted tight end Dalton Kincaid 25th overall. Kincaid was highly touted as one of the best pass-catching tight ends in the draft that year. Through two seasons with the team, Kincaid has played in 29 games recording 117 catches on 166 targets for 1,121 yards and four touchdowns.
"Yeah, best players, but Jeremy, you can't go into a draft, unless you got a major hole there, and I'm looking again at our receiving core. You guys forget you're not counting Dalton Kincaid who is a receiving tight end. You gotta include that in there, just the way the Kansas City Chiefs count Travis Kelce, or some of these other teams count their guys. Detroit count Sam LaPorta, like George Kittle, you name them, those types of tight ends that are receiving threat. Those guys count in your mix too. You can throw them the ball."
As for the rest of the NFL Draft, the Bills addressed major needs on the defensive side of the ball including their defensive line. In the second round, the Bills traded up to pick 41 to draft defensive tackle T.J. Sanders from South Carolina, they also drafted defensive tackle Deone Walker from the University of Kentucky at pick 109 in the fourth round.
"You love the versatility piece. I mean, sometimes you do have a guy where, you're not going to play this guy when you can help it on third down. But we joke internally here, the offense is allowed to pass on first, so it's actually one of the most strategic things to do, is pass on first down, if you've got the arsenal to do that. So we want guys that are not just what we call a two down slug in the middle, and that's what I think these guys give you in, they got the versatility to stop the run, but also to get after the pass. I think it's almost like Deone is more like a one to three, but he's got more rush than most ones, and TJ is probably more three to one. He's more rushed than anchor."
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