Buffalo Bills general manager Doug Whaley did not assume full control over the team's personnel department until after the 2013 NFL Draft had concluded. He made some tweaks to the scouting and pro personnel departments that spring, and since then, two drafts have come and gone, with Whaley serving as the final decision-maker for 13 Bills draft picks to date.
Whaley and the Bills have shown a proclivity for Florida State and Clemson players over the last several years, even pre-dating Whaley's rise in the front office, but there's an even bigger trend that has surfaced on Whaley's watch: the Bills have selected talent heavily from ACC schools in the last two drafts.
Specifically, nine of the 13 draft picks made with Whaley at the helm played their college ball in the ACC.
| Drafted | Player | Pos. | College | Conference |
| 2014-1-4 | Sammy Watkins | WR | Clemson | ACC |
| 2014-2-44 | Cyrus Kouandjio | OT | Alabama | SEC |
| 2015-2-50 | Ronald Darby | CB | Florida State | ACC |
| 2014-3-73 | Preston Brown | LB | Louisville | ACC* |
| 2015-3-81 | John Miller | OG | Louisville | ACC |
| 2014-4-109 | Ross Cockrell | CB | Duke | ACC |
| 2014-5-153 | Cyril Richardson | OG | Baylor | Big 12 |
| 2015-5-155 | Karlos Williams | RB | Florida State | ACC |
| 2015-6-188 | Tony Steward | LB | Clemson | ACC |
| 2015-6-194 | Nick O'Leary | TE | Florida State | ACC |
| 2014-7-221 | Randell Johnson | LB | Florida Atlantic | Conference USA |
| 2015-7-234 | Dezmin Lewis | WR | Central Arkansas | Southland |
| 2014-7-237 | Seantrel Henderson | OT | Miami (FL) | ACC |
There is one exception above: in Brown's senior season at Louisville, the Cardinals were playing in the AAC, their one-year stop there between a long stint in the Big East and their first year in the ACC, which was the 2014 regular season. If you don't want to count him as an ACC pick, then it's still 8-of-13 Whaley draft picks hailing from that conference. (Miller's senior season was spent in the ACC.)
It's also worth noting that, when healthy, five of those nine ACC draft picks are current Bills starters. All nine players remain in the league, though Cockrell currently plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers (he started seven games for them in 2015).
Interestingly, among the 13 names of Bills pre-draft visitors that we know about this year, only one - Louisville defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins - hails from an ACC school.