Often times, its said that most 1st year coaches want to draft a player with their first pick on the side of the ball they are most familiar with. If you look at the last six Bills head coaches, all of them went with their area of expertise with their first pick (Wade-Cowart, Williams-Clements, Mularkey-Evans, Jauron-Whitner, Gailey-Spiller, and Marrone-EJ). Of course, there are 1st year coaches who have gone with the other side of the ball, but it seems to be a safer bet that the incumbent will get his side of the ball picked first. I think its safe to say that Rex is a defensive coach. It has also been explained multiple times that the key to Rex Ryan’s defense is at the CB position. He wants to blitz the world and have his CBs play 1-on-1 on the outside. A lot of people in NYC feel Rex’s defenses starting falling apart once they lost Revis and GM there started to not care much about CBs. Something tells me Rex is going to want to do everything to have the best CBs he can get.
Defensive back depth chart
“You can never have enough cornerbacks.” God. How many times will a Bills personnel guy say this? Actually, I’m sure every team says this. As of now, the Bills seem to be set at defensive back with Gilmore/Leodis/Graham/Robey. Gilmore was hot down the stretch last year as PFF had him ranked as the 7th best CB in the NFL for the 2nd half of the season. Then you have Leodis McKelvin..he’s kind of hot and cold to me. I remember at the start of last season he was getting torched and pissed off a lot of Bills fans on Twitter. Yet, he was still getting INTs. You also have to factor in that McKelvin hasn’t played 16 games since 2011 and missed 7 games over the past two seasons. Its often said that when your career is mostly comprised of kick and punt returns, your shelf life doesn’t last as long. Corey Graham is a nice grab as your 3rd CB and he really played well when he was on the field. PFF ranked Graham as the 8th best CB last year and gave up just 1TD and an opposing QB rating of 57. Nickell Robey was much better as a rookie than he was last year. Maybe it had to do with the system change.
I’m curious how they view Duke Williams taking over for Searcy. They have him penciled in as the starter, but if he falters as he’s kind of unproven, you’d think the Bills would move Corey Graham to safety which would slice the CB depth chart. Aaron Williams seems to be doing his thing at safety, so, there’s nothing to worry about there.
Draft History- Of course, you have a defensive coach in Ryan. You also have DC Denis Thurman whose background is in the secondary. I am a big believer in looking back what coaches and GMs have done in the past when it comes to the draft. Its a better way to read the tea leaves than trying to decipher what they say at some bullshit draft luncheon where they smoke bombing the narrative. Under Ryan, the Jets drafted a CB in the 1st round in 2010 (Kyle Wilson) when they already had Cromartie/Revis. They also drafted Dee Milliner in 2013 in the first round. If you look at the Bills, things get a little interesting. The last time they selected a defensive back within the first three rounds was in 2012 with Stephon Gilmore. That seems like a long time ago, especially when you factor in the “You can’t have enough CBs” scouting rhetoric going.
Interest- CBs Byron Jones and Chris Dunkley had pre-draft visits with the Bills. Dunkley is slated to go very late in the draft, but Jones is someone that people have targeted in the 1st or the 2nd round. Maybe he falls to 50. Jones is a big guy for DB at 6’1, so, he could play safety and be a versatile asset. For the most part, Ryan wants CBs who can jam you at the line of scrimmage. So, don’t look for some 5’9 guy who would whiff on jamming someone. Jalen Collins, Eric Rowe, and Quentin Rollins are CBs who seem to have beefy frames.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
