Bills 2024 NFL Draft grades for every pick

The Bills did exactly what they needed to do with their first pick and took a potential No. 1 wide receiver to replace Stefon Diggs. And the way they did it — moving back twice and still getting one of their top targets — makes a lot of sense.

You can quibble with the fact that the Bills didn’t actually pick up a single extra draft pick, they simply moved up in several rounds, with these trades. And you can worry that seven years after gifting the Kansas City Chiefs Patrick Mahomes they did the same thing with Xavier Worthy.

Still, these were smart moves in a vacuum, and Buffalo came away with a big-time pass catcher, which was their biggest position of need.

In Keon Coleman, Josh Allen got a big, physical, athletic target in the mold of A.J. Brown or his cousin, CeeDee Lamb. Yes, Coleman ran a disappointing 40 time (4.61) at the combine, but the guys returned punts in college. When he has pads on and the ball in his hands he’s plenty fast and shifty.

Allen has never had a receiver like Coleman, and this could be the next step in the evolution of the QB and his offense, which is why this is an excellent pick.

Grade: A

Round 2, Pick No. 60 – S Cole Bishop, Utah

After wide receiver, safety was probably the Bills’ second-biggest needs. After nearly a decade of relying on Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde on the backside of the defense, those two are now gone, and Taylor Rapp is the only starting-caliber safety on the roster.

Cole Bishop may have been the best overall safety in the draft, and the Bills got him near the end of the second. The former Utah Ute star makes plays at all three levels of the defense and should become a Week 1 starter.

He does have a propensity to be too aggressive at times in the name of making plays, but that’s a weakness you’re willing to live with if Bishop makes the type of splash plays he did in college.

Grade: A-

Round 3, Pick 95 – DT DeWayne Carter, Duke

The Bills lost defensive tackles Jordan Philips, Tim Settle, Poona Ford, and Linval Joseph this offseason. They needed to bulk up the DT rotation during the draft to help support DaQuan Jones and Ed Oliver.

DeWayne Carter was the heart, soul, and brains of the Duke defense last season. Scouts described him as Graham Barton (the No. 26 pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) on defense. He is an interior pass rusher who could see a lot one one-on-one blocking next to Oliver especially on passing downs.

Carter likely won’t be an immediate starter, but grabbing a seemingly surefire rotation player here is a solid move.

Grade: B+

Round 4, Pick 128 – RB Ray Davis, Kentucky

Kentucky’s Ray Davis isn’t an explosive every-down back, but the 5-foot-8, 211-pound battering ram is an excellent complement to the speedy and shift James Cook. Davis isn’t just a two-down bruiser either, though. He can catch the ball, too, so he and Cook should be able to split time fairly evenly to keep both fresh for the fourth quarter.

Grade: B+

Round 5, Pick 141 – C Sedrick Van Pran-Granger, Georgia

This may be my favorite pick of the Bills 2024 NFL Draft. Sedrick Van Pran-Granger is a three-year starter with two national championships on his resume at Georgia. He started all 44 games for the Bulldogs the last three seasons and led his line with smarts and toughness.

After losing Mitch Morse, the Bills needed to figure out their center sitatuation in this draft, and that’s just what they did all the way in Round 5. Van Pran-Granger fell because he doesn’t have center/guard flexibility, but that’s just fine for the Bills.

Stick the former Bulldog next to last year’s second-round pick O’Cyrus Torrence, and Buffalo now has 2/5 of its O-line figured out for the next decade.

Grade: A+

Round 5, Pick 160 – LB Edefuan Ulofoshio, Washington

This was the first head-scratcher from the Bills in the 2024 NFL Draft. Edefuan Ulofoshio was a solid player at Washington who built himself from a walk-on to a national championship game starter. However, there isn’t much upside here.

Plus, Matt Milano is coming back from his broken leg last year, and in his absence, Terrel Bernard, Dorian Willams, and Baylon Spector all stepped up and got valuable reps that should make off-ball linebacker one of the deepest units on the team this year.

The biggest value in Ulofoshio is that he should become a good to excellent special teams player, and with the new kickoff rules, linebackers like this may have more value.

Grade: B-

Round 5, Pick 168 – EDGE Javon Solomon, Troy

From a player with little upside to one that is upside or nothing, the Bills took Troy pass-rusher Javon Solomon next in Round 5.

Solomon is 6-foot-1, 246 pounds, which is much smaller than most NFL teams want in an edge rusher. However, at Troy, the dude just knew how to get after the quarterback, racking up 31.0 sacks in his last three seasons.

Now, without intimately knowing the rosters in the Sun Belt conference, I’m going to go ahead and guess that Solomon wasn’t going against pro-sized 6-foot-7, 320-pound offensive tackles at Arkansas State, Louisiana-Monroe, or South Alabama. So, there’s a good chance he was just dominant vs. lesser competition.

That said, Solomon has an arsenal of rush moves, and his low-to-the-ground frame can frustrate big linemen. The former man of Troy may not make it in the league, but there is at least a glimmer of him as a pass-rush specialist and maybe more, which makes him a solid fifth-rounder.

Grade: B

Round 6, Pick 204 – OT Tylan Grable, UCF

Now 6-foot-6, 306 pounds, Tylan Grable passed for 3,000 yards as a high school quarterback and showed up at UCF as a tight end, so you know there is a lot of athleticism here. He only started at left tackle in college, but with his profile, Grable looks more like a guard at the next level.

In the end, Grable is a project with a good amount of upside, and if he makes the team, he could potentially back up four positions, which is a valuable player to have.

Grade: B-

Round 6, Pick 219 – CB Daequan Hardy, cornerback, Penn State

Back to the Bills filling needs in the 2024 NFL Draft, the team picked Penn State corner Daequan Hardy with their penultimate selection. He is small and fast and profiles as a nickel corner in the league.

Buffalo lost Tre’Davious White and Dane Jackson this offseason, so depth at corner is helpful. Plus, Brandon Beane has been good at drafting late-round CBs, taking now-starter Christian Benford in the same round two years ago.

Grade: B

Round 7, Pick 221 – OT Travis Clayton, England – International Player Pathway

The chances of a seventh-round pick even making the practice squad are slim, so why not take a huge home run swing with your last pick of the NFL draft?

That’s exactly what the Bills did by taking Travis Clayton, whose best position up to this point was winger on his eighth-tier rugby league in England. Clayton has never played a down of American football, but at 6-foot-7, 301 pounds, he ran the fastest 40 time for a lineman prospect in ten years (4.79), and is only 23 years old.

Bills Mafia may never hear the name Travis Clayton again. However, that’s surely what some Eagles fans thought when the team took a giant Australian rugby player in the seventh round of the 2018 NFL Draft. Now that player — Jordan Mialata — is one of the best offensive tackles in the league.

Maybe Clayton can make the same transition. At the very least, it’s worth burning a seventh-rounder to find out.

Grade: B 

Overall grade

The Bills did a great job overall mixing filling positions of need and drafting players for both fit and upside. This is a team in transition, and this draft class can form the foundation for the franchise’s second act with Josh Allen. Aside from Keon Coleman, there may not be any superstars in this group, but there could be four to six long-term starters on this list, which makes this an extremely solid Bills NFL draft class.

Grade: B+