Bills — 2026 Draft Recap

Welcome back to Muffed. The Buffalo Bills' 2026 draft class starts with a fact: they didn't pick in the first round. Brandon Beane traded out of 26 — part of the same maneuvering that brought DJ Moore to Buffalo earlier in the offseason — then traded back twice more before landing at 35. Ten picks, six on defense, headlined by Clemson defensive end T.J. Parker. The theme is loud and consistent: a defensive reset built around speed, length, and Relative Athletic Score outliers — that's a zero-to-ten grade comparing combine and pro-day testing to every player at the position since 1987. Beane and Joe Brady went hunting for athletes. The testing keeps jumping off the page.

Start with the pass defense, because that's where Buffalo spent the real capital. T.J. Parker came off the board at 35, and Brady was emphatic in the presser that Parker sets the run-stopping tone before you ever get to the pass rush. His Clemson line — 37 tackles, 9 tackles for loss, 5 sacks — is solid, not eye-popping. The athletic profile is what makes the pick sing: a 9.39 Relative Athletic Score, top 7 percent of every defensive end measured in four decades. At 62, the Bills grabbed Ohio State corner Davison Igbinosun — Beane flat-out called corner the biggest hole on the roster. Igbinosun's 52 tackles and 6 passes defensed paint a sticky cover guy without the ball-production breakout, with a 6.91 Relative Athletic Score that's good, not elite. The fifth-round addition of South Carolina's Jalon Kilgore is where this group gets fun: a hybrid star-nickel in college with 54 tackles and 10 passes defensed — that 10 ranked fifth in the SEC — and a 9.68 Relative Athletic Score as a strong safety, top 4 percent ever. Beane said outright they're moving him to safety and sent a coach to Columbia to work him out there. Round 7 closes with Missouri corner Toriano Pride Jr., a 8.41 Relative Athletic Score, 30-visit guy Beane described as undersized, feisty, and fast — backup-nickel and special-teams flex. The 2025 Buffalo pass defense allowed minus 57 expected points added, which is solid, but the corner room needed bodies. They added three, plus a premium edge.

The run defense was the unit that genuinely bled — plus 41.9 expected points added allowed in 2025 — and they answered with two more athletic outliers. TCU's Kaleb Elarms-Orr at 126 was a tackling machine — 130 stops, 11 tackles for loss, seventh in the Big 12 — and tested at 9.33 for linebacker, top 7 percent. Beane addressed the size question head-on: Elarms-Orr isn't a thumper, he's built like Terrel Bernard and Dorian Williams, and if he were bigger he wouldn't have been there in the fourth. Beane called him an arrow-up player and a likely fourth-down piece for Jeff Rogers. At 181, Penn State's Zane Durant — 25 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, 4 sacks, 9.28 Relative Athletic Score, top 8 percent for a defensive tackle. Brady labeled him an inside rusher. Beane was clear: not a need pick, just value sticking on the board.

On offense, two of three picks landed on the offensive line — a unit that gave up 40 sacks in 2025. Boston College tackle Jude Bowry went at 102, framed by Beane as the answer to losing swing tackle Ryan Van Demark in restricted free agency. Bowry's 9.48 Relative Athletic Score is top 6 percent ever at the position; Beane said he'll start as a swing tackle with the versatility to compete at guard. Round 7 brought Texas A&M guard Ar'maj Reed-Adams at 241 — 7.85 Relative Athletic Score, late-round interior depth.

The passing offense got one pick, and it might be the steal of the class. UConn receiver Skyler Bell at 125 was a monster producer — 1,276 yards, 13 touchdowns, 101 catches — every one of those numbers led the American Conference and finished top-five nationally. Then he tested at a 9.83 Relative Athletic Score, top 2 percent of every receiver since 1987. Beane was visibly surprised Bell was on the board in round four and said the staff had spent extensive pre-draft time on him, ready to pounce. The role projection was honest: Bell didn't play much special teams at UConn, so to earn a jersey he'll need to handle gunner and core-four work alongside the receiver job.

Buffalo also added a punter — Michigan's Tommy Doman at 239, a four-year starter with kickoff experience, in to push Sam Martin.

Pick of the draft. You can argue T.J. Parker — highest selection, the defensive identity piece Brady kept returning to. You can argue Igbinosun at the position Beane himself called the biggest hole on the roster. But the pick of this class is Skyler Bell at 125. The argument is value over slot: when a receiver leads his conference in catches, yards, and touchdowns AND lands in the top 2 percent of athletic testing, he doesn't fall to round four. Buffalo got a 24-year-old with three-level college production and combine numbers that would've been a Day 2 conversation if the buzz had caught up to the tape. Beane more or less said it out loud — they thought he'd be gone and couldn't believe he was sitting there.

Looking ahead to 2026, the question is whether this defensive infusion actually changes the unit's personality. Brady has been explicit: he wants the defense playing with the same attacking edge as the offense, and Beane just spent five of his top hundred picks across two drafts to make it happen. The stress test is the secondary. Igbinosun, Kilgore, and Pride all have to play real snaps for the room Beane himself called the biggest hole on the roster. If they hold up, Parker and Durant get to pin their ears back, and this class smashed. If the rookie corners get targeted into oblivion, the front-seven investment doesn't matter. Buffalo bet on athletes. Now they need to coach them up.