Getty Malik Nabers caught 14 touchdowns for LSU during the 2023 season.
The Buffalo Bills have not taken a wide receiver in the first round of the NFL Draft since 2014, when they moved all the way up to No. 4 to take Sammy Watkins.
Now, a decade later, an analyst believes it could be time for another big move. The Athletic’s Joe Buscaglia speculated that there was a “compelling case” for the Bills to trade up into the top 10 of this year’s NFL Draft and take advantage of a historically deep wide receiver group.
While Buscaglia noted that the Bills lack the draft capital to trade up for expected top receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., they could snag the next-best receiver on the list.
Another ‘Aggressive’ Draft Trade for Bills
Buscaglia wrote that the Bills could consider trading up to land LSU wide receiver Malik Nabers, who is expected to be the second receiver off the board. He added that Nabers would be the first receiver taken in most years, but will now fall somewhere in the back half of the top 10.
“Nabers has superstar potential, boasting a versatile skill set to line up wherever he’s needed and a knack for YAC (yards after catch),” Buscaglia wrote. “That is everything the Bills are looking for in a potential new top target for Josh Allen.”
Malik Nabers will be a ____ next season?
The Bills have a big hole in their wide receiver room after they traded No. 1 receiver Stefon Diggs to the Houston Texans and No. 2 Gabe Davis left in free agency to join the Jacksonville Jaguars. Buscaglia has seen Nabers as a potential addition, predicting in a mock draft published in The Athletic on April 5 that they would trade up to select him.
“I continue to believe that anything, including a move like this one on draft day, is a real possibility for the Bills,” Buscaglia wrote “[Bills general manager Brandon] Beane has long been an aggressive draft-day trader when he’s excited about a prospect and how he’d fit their system. Now, with a gaping hole for a top target at wide receiver and where the Bills are in their build, this is the type of move Beane could rationalize as one that puts them over the top for the foreseeable future.”
Beane has moved up in the first round in each of the last two NFL Drafts, grabbing cornerback Kaiir Elam in 2022 and tight end Dalton Kincaid in 2023.
Bills Could Stay Put at No. 28
While many analysts agree that the Bills will use their first pick to land a receiver, there is no consensus on where they might do it. Others believe they will stay put with the No. 28 overall pick and grab a teammate of Nabers, wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr.
In a mock draft published in March, Trevor Sikkema of Pro Football Focus predicted that the Bills would see Thomas as a potential replacement for the deep threat that Davis brought to the offense.
“This is a very common pairing, but after moving on from Gabe Davis, the Bills need a consistent field-stretcher,” PFF’s Trevor Sikkema wrote in the mock draft. “Thomas ran a 4.33-second 40-yard dash at 209 pounds — so, yeah, he’ll do.”