Like every other team in the NFL, the Buffalo Bills and their front office have been making the most out of every opportunity to sit down and get to know the prospects they hope to select in the upcoming NFL Draft.
Beginning with the Senior Bowl (held Jan. 27 in Mobile, Ala.) and extending through the combine (held Feb. 27-March 5 in Indianapolis, Ind.), the Bills have scheduled 23 formalish, sit down interviews with prospective draft picks, including comprehensive interviews with all eight of the consensus top quarterback prospects in the draft.
NFL teams are allowed to conduct sit-down, 15-minute interviews with up to 60 prospects during the league’s scouting combine. Sean McDermott, who just completed his first season as the Bills’ head coach, said the interview process has evolved during his time as a coach.
“It used to be you just kind of went in with a couple questions and you’d get to know the player more on a broad-based surface level,” McDermott said. “Now it seems like it’s evolved to more watching film. A lot of teams seem to have gone that direction with watching film and drilling down as opposed to drilling out. ... For 12 of the 15 minutes, we’re watching film, probably. Then we’ll ask them a few (other) questions but we can get the other stuff, your family and your career, at another time. We just want to make this intimately about ball.”
When the Bills do their homework on a prospect, general manager Brandon Beane said he, McDermott, and other staff members are told to assess how well the prospect would fit — both talent-wise and personality-wise — with the team.
”You do see some of their personality come out,” Beane told a group of reporters. “How do they handle it when the mistake is pointed out? Do they blame somebody else? Do they take the blame themselves? How do they take coaching? What’s their football smarts? How do they communicate? Are they comfortable? Are they backing down? Do they not know anything?”
Here’s a running list of who they have been in contact with, sorted by position via NewYorkUpstate.com:
Quarterbacks
- Josh Allen, Wyoming (sat down during the Senior Bowl)
- Kurt Benkert, Virginia (Senior Bowl)
- Luke Falk, Washington State (Senior Bowl)
- Lamar Jackson, Louisville (NFL Combine)
- Baker Mayfield, Oklahoma (Senior Bowl and NFL Combine)
- Mason Rudolph, Oklahoma State (Senior Bowl)
- Brandon Silvers, Troy (Senior Bowl)
- Mike White, Western Kentucky (Senior Bowl and the NFL Combine)
Running Back
- Derrius Guice, LSU (NFL Combine)
- Rashaad Penny, San Diego State (NFL Combine)
- Jaylen Samuels, N.C. State (Senior Bowl and NFL Combine)
Wide Receiver
- James Washington, Oklahoma State (Scouting Combine)
Tight End
- Ryan Izzo, Florida State (NFL Combine)
Guard
- Will Hernandez, UTEP (Senior Bowl)
Center
- Frank Ragnow, Arkansas (NFL Combine)
Tackle
- Brandon Parker, North Carolina A&T (NFL Combine)
Tackle/Guard
- Jaryd Jones-Smith, Pittsburgh (NFL Combine)
- Kolton Miller, UCLA (NFL Combine)
- Martinas Rankin, Mississippi State (NFL Combine)
- Isaiah Wynn, Georgia (Senior Bowl)
Defensive Tackle
- Harrison Phillips, Stanford (Senior Bowl)
Linebacker
- Darius Leonard, South Carolina State (Senior Bowl)
- Mike McCray, Michigan (Senior Bowl)