It was an unusual first night of the NFL Draft for the Buffalo Bills.
They were quite busy, but they didn’t make any picks.
Fans who went to bed early woke up to that odd news. Those that stayed up late were disappointed. And those just catching up with the action before the second and third rounds on Friday might not get what happened.
The reality is that things likely went just according to plan for Buffalo.
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Why didn’t the Bills make a 1st-round pick?
The Bills actually made three trades to move down and out of the first round.
They were at No. 26 originally, then traded down to the Houston Texans at 28.
Then they traded down to the New England Patriots at 31.
And then they traded to let the Tennessee Titans get up to 31 while the Bills dropped to 35, which is the third pick of the second round.
The Bills pulled this off:
- They started the night with picks 26, 91 and 165.
- They ended the night with picks 35, 66, 101, 125 and 167.
And so in the end, they didn’t pick in the first round because they moved down just a bit, three times, to stockpile more draft assets.
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List of Bills draft picks
This is updated through the end of Thursday night:
- Round 2: Pick 35 (from Tennessee Titans)
- Round 3: Pick 66 (from Tennessee Titans)
- Round 4: Pick 101 (from Tennessee Titans)
- Round 4: Pick 125 (from New England Patriots)
- Round 4: Pick 126
- Round 5: Pick 167 (from Houston Texans)
- Round 5: Pick 168
- Round 6: Pick 182 (from Las Vegas Raiders)
- Round 7: Pick 220 (from New York Jets)