After the Buffalo Bills selected defensive end Greg Rousseau with their first round pick Thursday night, general manager Brandon Beane told the media that he wanted to focus on players who could “affect the passer.”
He doubled down on Friday night, selecting another defensive end, Carlos “Boogie” Basham Jr., with the 61st overall pick in the second round from Wake Forest.
It’s clear what the Bills' plan was going into this draft, and why.
After watching Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs beat them twice on their way to a Super Bowl appearance, including defeating the Bills in the AFC Championship Game and only sacking Mahomes once in both games combined, Beane and head coach Sean McDermott obviously felt they needed to add, and maybe even overhaul, their pass rush in multiple ways.
Rousseau is 6-foot-7, 266 pounds, and can play both outside and inside on the defensive line.
Basham is 6-foot-3, 280 pounds and can also play both on the edge or the interior. Basham even called himself a “chess piece” when asked to describe his game and how he will fit the Bills.
Beane said on Friday night they didn’t expect to take another pass rusher after grabbing Rousseau, but they stuck to their philosophy of drafting the best available player when they were on the clock, and that was Basham. He then added, “you can never have enough pass rushers.”
Neither player is expected to walk onto the field in 2021 and make a huge impact, but both should be part of a defensive line group that now suddenly has a lot of competition, and questions about who will still be on the roster come the regular season.
The team now has nine defensive ends on their roster, and all seven of the others have NFL playing experience.
Starters Jerry Hughes and Mario Addison will be 33- and 34-years-old, respectively, and both entering the final year of their contracts. If the Bills were to make Addison a post-June 1 cut, they would save over $5.3 million on the salary cap this season, while taking on a $2.8 million dead cap hit this year and another $2.0 million next year.
A release of Hughes would save over $6.3 million, and have them take on a dead cap hit of $3.1 million this season.
The team tabbed A.J. Epenesa as their top draft choice just a year ago, signed Efe Obada as a free agent, and Darryl Johnson is going into his third year and is considered a valuable special teams performer, as well.
Bryan Cox, Jr. and Mike Love were both on the practice squad last year and most likely face an uphill battle. Even if neither ultimately factors into the mix, that still leaves seven players for a position the Bills typically only keep four or five, at the most.
“Competition.”
That’s the word Beane kept referring to when asked how this position could ultimately play out, and what he expects from the group come training camp.
They hope it translates to helping to compete against the Chiefs for the AFC title once again in 2021.
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