Andrew Buller-Russ
When selecting so late in the NFL Draft as Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane has gotten used to, it becomes tough to predict which prospects will be available at the latter half of the first round. Of course, as noted, this is nothing new for the Bills, who haven’t had a top-10 selection since they made Ed Oliver the ninth overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.
This time around, the Bills don’t have a pick until No. 26 in the first round. Most Bills draft projections expect the team to focus on a wide receiver or a defender. It turns out, the Bills’ evaluators have invested a lot of time digging into a specific position on defense.
According to Essentially Sports’ NFL insider Tony Pauline, the Bills have done an “insane amount of work” on off-ball linebacker prospects for the 2026 NFL Draft.
“In my prior first-round mock draft, I had Buffalo selecting CJ Allen of Georgia,” Pauline wrote. “I’m told that the Bills, who don’t have a selection until pick No. 91 after their choice in the initial frame, have been doing an insane amount of work on the off-ball linebackers.”
Allen has been a common choice projected to the Bills at No. 26. He’s viewed as the second-best pure linebacker prospect behind Ohio State star Sonny Styles and is viewed as a possible first-round selection after clocking a 4.47 40 -yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine.
The Bills have a total of seven selections in the NFL Draft, including No. 26 and 91. After that, the odds of landing an immediate contributor go way down, but the Bills will still have five chances to find someone who can crack their roster.
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