Getty Kaiir Elam celebrates after making a play in the Orange Bowl.
Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane has pulled off yet another first-round draft trade.
Beane, who has a penchant for flipping around the draft board in the first round to snag his desired players, moved up from the No. 25 spot in Thursday’s first round to No. 23, selecting Florida cornerback Kaiir Elam. The pick allowed the Bills to address one of their weakest positions, and at a relatively light price.
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Beane Gets His Cornerback
Going into Thursday’s NFL Draft, Beane had hinted that the team could be looking for a cornerback early in the draft. The secondary is one of the thinnest positions for the Bills after the departure of Levi Wallace and an ACL tear to Tre’Davious White that is expected to keep him out at least part of the season.
After the Bills made a number of moves in free agency but failed to address the secondary, Beane hinted that it would be coming through the draft.
“My main focus right now is the draft. We’re out of money unless [the reporters] have some here,” Beane joked in early April after a free-agency spending spree that brought Von Miller, among others. “Other than that, we’ll always look. After the draft, we’ll be looking. We’re never satisfied. We got a lot of positions that I still want to get more depth. We’re not just waking up every day saying, ‘Where’s the corner?’ We’re looking everywhere and we have a lot of time. We don’t play games until September. It’s my job to make sure we have the roster ready by then and not April 1.”
Beane has gotten plenty of praise for taking Elam, while giving up just a fourth-round pick (No. 130). Many fans took to social media to share praise for the move.
The #Bills go cornerback in the 1st round of the 2022 NFL Draft after trading up two spots to select Florida’s Kaiir Elam. #BillsMafia
“Believe in Beane !” tweeted former Bills offensive lineman John Fina. “Elam !!!!”
“Brandon Beane is an evil genius,” another fan tweeted.
Beane has used first-round trades to build the core of the team, making a series of moves up the board in 2018 to snag Josh Allen and sending their 2020 first-round pick to the Minnesota Vikings to land Stefon Diggs.
Elam a Strong Fit for Buffalo
Elam has the chance to make an immediate impact on a Bills team in need of help in the secondary. As SI.com’s Zach Goodall noted, he has a good mix of size and athleticism that could be especially important in a division with fast receivers like Tyreek Hill.
“Standing at 6-foot-1.5, 191 pounds with 30 and 7/8-inch arms, Elam possesses the prototypical size of a press-man cornerback and great athleticism to pair, which he proved this year with a 4.39-second 40-yard dash (83rd percentile among cornerbacks) and a 37.5-inch vertical jump (70th percentile) at the NFL Combine and UF’s pro day,” Goodall wrote.
Dream come true! 🤩 #NFLDraft
🎥: @swrightwpbf
Elam could also have plenty of help preparing for the jump from the college ranks to the NFL. As The Athletic’s G. Allan Taylor noted, he carries a strong football pedigree — his father, Abram Elam, and uncle, Matt Elam, both played in the NFL.
Elam’s coaches at Florida added that he has a great work ethic and strong desire to improve.
“He’s a self-motivator to the point that he competes against himself,” former Florida cornerbacks coach Jules Montinar told Taylor. “I texted him after he ran the 4.39 at the combine and he was pissed that he didn’t run faster.”
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