2017 NFL Draft: Buffalo Bills 7-round mock
By John Buhler
The Buffalo Bills will have six picks to make their team better in the 2017 NFL Draft. Here is a mock draft of what Buffalo could do this spring.
After missing the AFC Playoffs for the 17th straight season, maybe this is the year that the Buffalo Bills finally get back into the postseason? The 2017 NFL season seems to be one filled with optimism for the Bills, as it can’t be as bad as it ended in 2016.
This will be the first season Sean McDermott will be the Bills head coach. He takes over for Rex Ryan in Orchard Park for his first job as an NFL head coach. Before this, McDermott had long been Ron Rivera’s defensive coordinator for the Carolina Panthers.
Buffalo will have six picks in the 2017 NFL Draft. The Bills do not have a fourth-round pick or a seventh-round pick, but have to fifth round picks. Buffalo traded this year’s fourth to the Chicago Bears in the 2016 NFL Draft. The Bills get the Dallas Cowboys’ fifth-round pick in the deal to acquire backup quarterback Matt Cassel, but also had to give up this year’s seventh-round pick to the Cowboys.
The Bills have a few glaring needs on their roster including safety, wide receiver and the enigma that is the quarterback position. Here is the mock draft for the Bills for 2017.
First Round
Mike Williams
Wide Receiver, Clemson Tigers
It’s hard to throw the football in Western New York. Yes, the Bills have had issues at quarterback since Jim Kelly retired, but unless Buffalo is willing to trade up in the first round from No. 10, the Bills may not be able to land a franchise quarterback in the first round.
Expect the Bills to go after either a wide receiver or a safety at No. 10 if they can’t take their quarterback in the first round. Remember they could always roll with Tyrod Taylor, E.J. Manuel, or Cardale Jones for 2017 and draft Sam Darnold or Josh Rosen in 2018.
The pick Buffalo would need to make at No. 10 would be to draft Clemson Tigers wide receiver Mike Williams. Williams, along with Corey Davis of the Western Michigan Broncos, will likely be the off the board before the middle of the second round.
Clemson was able to win its first national title thanks to the great hands, route-running, physicality of Williams. He is of the A.J. Green, Julio Jones, Mike Evans prototype. Injuries concerns from college could be an issue. All things equal, Williams could be one of the best wide receivers in the AFC for the next eight seasons. That would be worthy of a No. 10 overall selection, right?