My bet is the mood changed in the Bills draft room in a span of less than an hour late in Thursday night’s first round.
For so long it looked so favorable.
Buffalo’s two biggest needs — slot receiver and inside linebacker — went untouched for 17 selections.
Then, at pick 18, everything started to unravel.
First it was Iowa linebacker Jack Campbell, one of two players who seemingly had first-round chops at a position of need.
Next came the unthinkable, pick 20 started a run of four consecutive slot receivers: Jaxson Smith-Njigba, Ohio State; Quentin Johnston, TCU; Ray Flowers, Boston College and Jordan Addison, USC, the expected first-rounders.
But judging by what happened next, either the Bills weren’t interested in the perceived positions of need or panicked.
Because, they traded up — TRADED UP — two positions with Jacksonville to take Utah tight end Dalton Kincaid at the cost of critical draft capital. That move cost Buffalo this year’s fourth-round draft pick, No. 130 overall. That leaves the Bills four selections for the final five rounds: one each in the second, third, fifth and sixth.
That the Bills would seemingly waste such an important pick on a player — even if they had a first-round grade on him — when having just extended a blossoming tight end in Dawson Knox, whose best is yet to come, is inexplicable and reckless.
To be sure, this was a hard-to-assess draft with barely half the eligibles having a grade worthy of an opening-round selection.
But was it really necessary to trade up for a player who looms as a backup for at least the immediate future? Does Buffalo see Kincaid, 6-foot-3, 246 pounds, as a hybrid who can fill the slot wide receiver role via mismatch?
If you’re wondering, Kincaid was the only tight end selected in the first round.
For the record, here are the other positions taken in Round 1: offensive linemen 5, wide receiver, cornerbacks, defensive tackles and defensive ends, 4 each, quarterbacks and edge rushers, 3 each, running backs 2 and linebacker 1.
COULD anybody explain, other than to promote their new album, why NFL Draft viewers had to endure a painful interview with the Jonas Brothers at the midway point of the telecast.
They didn’t perform, just gave vapid answers to forced, unstimulating questions from hosts Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard who clearly wished they were somewhere else.
Worse, the uncomfortable interview dragged on for a couple of selections, the most egregious of which came at the 14th pick to which Pittsburgh had traded up and while the screen showed the pick was in, the Jonas Brothers yammered on while Steelers fans desperately waited to find out who the Steelers selected.
Is the NFL so desperate for diverse appeal that it invites a singing group favored by teenage girls to interrupt one of its showcase events?
ON THE other hand, ABC got it right with its Will Trent promo, when he wondered, as a member of the Georgia Bureau Investigation, why his boss is wearing a Bills jersey and wondering who her team is going to pick. He’s curious why and she responds “Josh Allen.” Trent then reminds her they’re in Georgia and the team is Atlanta with the likes of “Kyle Pitts.” It was pretty funny.
(Chuck Pollock, a Times Herald senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)
