If Mike Mayock was Buffalo Bills general manager for the last 8 years, what would it look like?

First of all, congrats to Mike Mayock for skipping all the grunt work and being awarded a general manager’s job without ever working in an NFL front office. Now that the Oakland Raiders have paired Mayock with Jon Gruden, they have successfully made what would be the greatest daily half hour of television the world has ever seen. Fortunately for us, we get to go back and play, seeing what it would be like to have Mike Mayock as an NFL GM.

From 2011 to 2018, this is who Mayock mocked to the Buffalo Bills in his annual mock draft:

2011 3rd overall: DT Marcell Dareus, Starts: 100, Pro Bowls: 2, All-Pro: 1
2012 10th overall: LB Luke Kuechly, Starts: 102, Pro Bowls: 6, All-Pro: 5
2013 8th overall: WR Tavon Austin, Starts: 50, Pro Bowls: 0, All-Pro: 0
2014 9th overall: OG Zack Martin, Starts: 78, Pro Bowls: 5, All-Pro: 5
2015 No Pick
2016 19th overall: DE Robert Nkemdiche, Starts: 6, Pro Bowls: 0, All-Pro: 0
2017 10th overall: LB Reuben Foster, Starts: 16, Pro Bowls: 0, All-Pro: 0
2018 6th overall: QB Josh Allen, Starts: 11, Pro Bowls: 0, All-Pro: 0

The actual picks:

2011 3rd overall: DT Marcell Dareus, Starts: 100, Pro Bowls: 2, All-Pro: 1
2012 10th overall: CB Stephon Gilmore, Starts: 95, Pro Bowls: 2, All-Pro: 1
2013 16th overall: QB E.J. Manuel, Starts: 18, Pro Bowls: 0, All-Pro: 0
2014 4th overall: WR Sammy Watkins, Starts: 60, Pro Bowls: 0, All-Pro: 0
2015 No Pick
2016 19th overall: DE Shaq Lawson, Starts: 17, Pro Bowls: 0, All-Pro: 0
2017 27th overall: CB Tre’Davious White, Starts: 32, Pro Bowls: 0, All-Pro: 0
2018 7th overall: QB Josh Allen, Starts: 11, Pro Bowls: 0, All-Pro: 0—16th overall: LB Tremaine Edmunds, Starts: 15, Pro Bowls: 0, All-Pro: 0

Let’s compare the picks:

2011: This one wasn't tough to see, unless you thought that the Denver Broncos would take Dareus over Von Miller. Outside of quarterbacks, Dareus and Miller were the two best prospects in the 2011 NFL Draft. Mayock might not have given Dareus a ridiculous player-friendly deal and had to eat an unhealthy amount of dead money after trading him for a fifth-round pick.

2012: Luke Kuechly or Stephon Gilmore? We all know the answer to that one, despite Gilmore’s All-Pro season. Kuechly has clearly been the best linebacker in the NFL since he entered the league. He’s made six Pro-Bowls and has been voted a First-Team All-Pro five times in his seven year career.

2013: Oof. Mayock’s scenario and the actual scenario for this year are terrible. For the sake of Mayock, I’ll give the award for worst pick to the actual Bills who drafted a day-three quarterback without much talent in the first round because his hands were big. Tavon Austin hasn’t had the career a lot of people thought he would, but at least he’s still contributing to an offense on Sundays...kinda.

2014: Again, I’ll take Mayock’s pick over the blunder the Bills had. Staying at ninth overall and taking Zack Martin, who is now the best guard in the NFL and will be in that conversation for the next six to eight years gets the best of trading up to fourth overall to take Sammy Watkins and pass on Khalil Mack. Sammy Watkins was a hell of a prospect as a receiver. If he could have stayed healthy throughout his time in Buffalo (and elsewhere), this conversation could very well be going the other way.

2015: As a part of the trade-up to get Watkins, the Bills packaged their 2015 first-round pick.

2016: Even though Shaq Lawson hasn’t panned out to be the player that the Bills were hoping, I’d take him over Robert Nkemdiche. Nkemdiche has had trouble converting to the NFL and in his rookie year he was called out for his lack of work ethic. His 2018 season turned to be better than his first two before he was put on injured reserve in December. Over the past three years, Lawson’s body of work is more consistent than Nkemdiche’s.

2017: Trading back for Tre White seemed like the best move up until September 16th, 2018. The Kansas City Chiefs played the Pittsburgh Steelers and Mahomes completed over 80% of his passes, threw for 326 yards and six touchdowns—on the road. Mahomes took the league by storm and will likely win the MVP award for his 2018 season. Of course, Mahomes wouldn't be in the same situation in Buffalo that he is currently finds in Kansas City, but letting the Chiefs trade into their draft spot to take him looks like a miss. Tre White is a good corner and will continue to be one, but it’s hard not to sit back and think of what might have been.

2018: Mayock had the Bills packaging the 12th and 22nd pick to move up to 6th to grab Josh Allen. Luckily for the Bills, they were able to salvage their 22nd overall pick in the process, which eventually allowed them to move up again to 16 and grab Tremaine Edmunds. The 22nd pick originally belonged to Kansas City before the Bills acquired the pick in the 2017 deal for the 10th overall pick, which resulted in Patrick Mahomes joining the Chiefs.