Buffalo Bills: Greatest Draft Class of the Last 20 Years

During the 1990s, the Buffalo Bills had many draft classes that helped build the franchise into a dynasty that saw the team win four straight AFC Conference Championships but also saw four straight Super Bowl losses. No team would ever accomplish that feat again, and after that, the team missed the playoffs 17 years in a row.

Things started to turn when the organization hired Brandon Beane as general manager and Sean McDermott as head coach in 2017. They broke their playoff drought their first year together but were knocked out by the Jacksonville Jaguars 10-3.

What happened the following year would prove to be the Buffalo Bills’ greatest draft class of the last 20 years. It would be the Buffalo Bills 2018 draft class.

Buffalo Bills Greatest Draft Class: The 2018 Draft Class:

• Round 1 (7): Josh Allen (QB), (16) Tremaine Edmunds (MLB)
• Round 3 (96): Harrison Phillips (DT)
• Round 4 (121): Taron Johnson (CB)
• Round 5 (154): Siran Neal (CB), (166) Wyatt Teller (G)
• Round 6 (187): Ray-Ray McCloud (WR)
• Round 7 (255): Austin Proehl (WR)

 

Having two-first rounds picks they made with the Kansas City Chiefs from a trade-in 2017, the pick at number 27 turned out to be All-Pro cornerback Tre White. The Bills knew that their first pick at number seven had to be a new franchise quarterback to replace serviceable veteran Tyrod Taylor.

The choice came down to the two Joshes; Wyoming’s Josh Allen, a zero-star recruit who had no division one offers in high school and had to play a year of JUCO before transferring to Wyoming, where he had a stellar career, and UCLA’s Josh Rosen. He was a five-star recruit but a very cocky and spoiled kid who had his mother drop him off a hot tub in his dorm room in his freshman year before the University removed it.

While most fans wanted the five-star kid, the Bills knew they wanted the underdog. The Bills selected Josh Allen with the seventh overall pick out of Wyoming, and much like when Peyton Manning was picked ahead of Ryan Leaf and when Donavan McNabb was selected by the Eagles, Allen was booed by the fans, but since then has made the fans regret that gesture.

With their second, first-round pick, the Bills selected Tremaine Edmunds, a tough and versatile MLB who made an immediate impact for four years before signing with the Chicago Bears this past free agency.

Harrison Phillips

Phillips is the one player most Bills fans, including myself, envision as the one that started the change in the Bills’ culture. He was a standout player coming out of Nebraska that showed he was ready to play the minute he stepped onto One Bills drive.

The dynamic defensive tackle was an animal out on the field but was also a positive change agent off the field. He spent countless hours giving back to the autism community and was a great all-around human being.

The Bills brass just couldn’t afford to resign Phillips to a long-term deal in 2022; therefore, he signed a new deal with the Minnesota Vikings. He is still, to this day, a change agent there, as he will help turn their defense around as he did in Orchard Park.

Taron Johnson

At first, I thought  Johnson was just going to be some “fourth-string, fill-in-a-depth chart” corner who would just do kick returns, but then I remember his big 51-yard int. return for a touchdown against “Big Ben” and the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2020.  To watch this kid grow from an FCS star to starting at nickel corner as a rookie, to being another change agent on this Bills defense, what another great pick from our Bills brass. Today, he’s still here and ready for another great season in 2023.

Siran Neal

Another FCS draft pick from the great HBCU school of Jacksonville State.  Neal has been mostly a depth piece as a corner but has filled in for guys like Micah Hyde at safety this past season, where the secondary was hit with the injury bug. While Neal doesn’t have any recorded stats recently, he does have one sack, which is impressive for a second/third-string safety. Neal is mainly impactful on special teams and McDermott says if you’re a late-round pick whose not going to see the field early at your position, then you’re going to contribute at special teams, which is 1-3 phase of the game.

Wyatt Teller

I thought initially Teller was going to be a pretty solid pick, as he worked his way into the starting lineup as a guard in his rookie year. But on August 29, 2019, the Bills traded Teller and a 2021 seventh-round pick to the Cleveland Browns for 2020 fifth and six-round picks.

Teller was another game-changing pick, as he ended up signing a long-term deal with the Cleveland Browns. Our 2020 fifth-round pick turned out to be Jake Fromm, and our two sixth-round picks ended up being Isaiah Hodgins, who had his moment with the Bills before blossoming with the Giants, and Tyler Bass, who is now one of the best kickers in the league.

Ray-Ray McCloud

McCloud was still in the era where the Bills were infatuated with drafting Clemson receivers. After Sammy Watkins rose and then fell, McCloud was looking to bring a different type of Clemson brand to the Bills.

He was very fast like Watkins, but he was more of a kick returner than he was ever a route runner or had polished hands like Watkins. When the Bills took him, the plan was to use him mainly as a kick returner his first couple of years while having him work on his route running and his hands as a receiver individually in practice.

Unfortunately, time and patience wore thin on the coaching staff and the fans, as McCloud is with the San Francisco 49ers, still trying to become an explosive speed demon in the NFL.

Austin Proehl

Now, for one of the biggest “what if” scenario’s in the 2018 Buffalo Bills draft class. The Bills selected Austin Proehl out of North Carolina in the seventh round of the 2018 NFL draft. For NFL fans of the late 1990s, Austin is the son of former St. Louis Rams receiver Ricky Proehl. Beane figured, Austin had two things working for him, in that he grew up around the game and that he had the bloodlines to play in the NFL.

Sadly, Proehl did not make the roster, but now, he is playing for his father and the St. Louis BattleHawks’ WR’s coach Ricky Proehl in the XFL alongside (QB) AJ McCarron and(WR) Hakeem Butler. Their team is 6-2 and is on the verge of making the South Divisional Playoff game.

Maybe, just maybe, if things go well and the BattleHawks win the XFL championship, Austin could earn another shot back into the NFL. Might the Bills and Beane give him another call and another shot to make the team that originally drafted him?

The Bills had many draft picks that helped them “Circle the Wagons,” as ESPN announcer Chris Berman always coined the phrase back in the 90s.

The 2018 Buffalo Bills draft class is the one that started something even better for them and will hopefully lead their team to their first Lombardi Trophy in 2023 and beyond.

 

For another NFL Story, please check out:

https://defianttakesfootball.com/draft-projected-starters-buffalo-bills/