Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) - One move seemed to break the Bills fanbase in Round 1 of the 2024 NFL Draft last week Thursday: Buffalo's trade back with the Kansas City Chiefs, who moved up four spots to take wide receiver Xaiver Worthy at Pick 28.
That night, after the initial shock of it all, I went for the message of "take a step back, sleep on it and then we get back at it again tomorrow night!"
A couple days later, the morning of Day 3, I lost my marbles on a caller while hosting after they mentioned how they thought it was foolish to trade back with Kansas City.
I saw another call in the queue calling the Bills the "Bootycheek of the Week" for trading with Kansas City.
My co-host Zach Jones also flipped on a caller when they were dismissive about the draft class, calling it a D- draft class, and lamented the Worthy to Kansas City pick.
After a week, I have a message to anyone still upset about it: Stop letting the Chiefs live rent-free in your heads.
New Bills wide receiver Keon Coleman has a few strong points in his scouting report that fans wished they saw from former wideout Gabe Davis.
Coleman has strong hands and a low drop rate, which will be a welcome sight after last year’s room suffered a case of the dropsies. He also has a strong rate of winning contested catches, which helps combat his scouting report’s weakness of his lack of separation.
Buffalo also moved up an entire round with that trade.
Not finished, though, because the Bills had another big move up in the fifth round in the trade one spot down with the Carolina Panthers. Buffalo used those picks to grab some much-needed depth over the weekend.
The deals helped Buffalo snag defensive tackle DeWayne Carter and center Sedrick Van Pran-Granger, as well as offensive lineman Travis Clayton with their final pick.
Buffalo clearly knew they were comfortable with the availability of the combination of Coleman, Xavier Legette, and Ricky Pearsall.
This is also backed up by Buffalo holding on to Pick 33, a selection that history shows teams will overpay to move up to. Instead, the Bills were happy to stand pat to take Coleman after moving back and adding picks.
Buffalo didn’t help Kansas City. They helped themselves.
Now, let’s have a quick talk about the Chiefs.
Last season, Kansas City pulled off a Super Bowl win with their defense paving the way most of the season. The Chiefs' wide receiver room was a travesty, with the likes of Skyy Moore and Kadarius Toney seemingly tanking football games. They still won, though, because they have the quarterback and the coaching to get it done.
To their credit, they decided to try and fix that room, with the additions of Worthy and Marquise Brown.
Kansas City also has a rather dubious draft record with wideouts as of late. Outside of Rashee Rice last year, the Chiefs haven’t had an impactful selection at the wide receiver position since Tyreek Hill, who was picked back in 2016.
Moore, Rice, and Mecole Hardman have all been second-round picks since. Only Rice has been a net positive, and now he’s in some off-field concerns.
Kansas City hasn’t been the brightest with their acumen at wide receiver. I hope this helps.
Yes, the Bills traded the pick that was Patrick Mahomes. Yes, the Chiefs have beaten Buffalo three times in the playoffs. However, the record between these two teams is 3-4 since 2020.
Two of those losses were playoff classics, where it was a shame that someone had to lose. The other two losses were in the 2020 season, where Buffalo wasn’t quite ready yet as an upstart, whose contention window was opening.
Buffalo has won three of the last five matchups, all three of those wins on the road in the regular season.
Let’s not pretend there is this giant chasm between the two teams. There isn’t. Buffalo has been chasing, but they have also been losing photo finishes.
As long as Kansas City has Mahomes and Buffalo has Josh Allen, it will be a tough matchup for both teams.
So stop letting them live rent-free in your heads. Let’s see what the Bills are made of.
Save the panic for January. That’s when it’s going to be needed.
