Bills tried to move to No. 1 to ensure Sammy Watkins selection
By Mike Dyce
The Buffalo Bills really wanted Clemson wide receiver Sammy Watkins in the 2014 NFL Draft. They ended up trading up to the No. 4 spot to get him, but they initially tried to trade all the way up to the top overall pick to get Watkins.
“We went with Houston right off the bat,” Jim Monos, Buffalo’s director of player personnel, said, via a video on the Bills’ website. “We tried to go to No. 1. They weren’t having it. They knew who they wanted, so we started working our way right down.”
It seems to confirm reports ahead of the draft that the Bills were enamored by Watkins. After they failed to work out a trade with the Houston Texans, they were left to wait. They knew their only chance would be if the Jacksonville Jaguars didn’t select Watkins with the third pick, which of course they didn’t allowing the Bills to trade up to No. 4.
“We really didn’t know,” Monos said. “Jacksonville never tipped it. We had just heard so much that they needed a receiver. We thought that this was going to be Sammy. We knew that if Jacksonville didn’t take him we had a shot.”
Watkins said he didn’t have a clue where he was ending up either and is happy to be in Buffalo.
“I really had no clue (where I was going),” Watkins said on The Doug Gottlieb Show. “I’m just in a great situation right now, coming in with a veteran quarterback and veteran receivers to learn from.”