At the start of the second day of the 2020 NFL Draft, there were still several talented receivers available as potential draft picks for the Buffalo Bills at pick 54. Even as six wideouts had been taken in the first round, talented prospects such as Tee Higgins, Michael Pittman and Laviska Shenault Jr. remained. However, as the drafting began, teams immediately started snatching up available receivers. Higgins and Pittman were taken with the first two picks of the round, with Shenault and K.J. Hamler soon to follow.
This run on receivers came as a surprise to Bills general manager Brandon Beane, who revealed to members of the media following the conclusion of Day Two that the team did not have a second-round grade on any of the wideouts left when the Bills’ selection came up:
“Yeah there was a run and we had some guys that would have been in the mix there, but they went. And so we weren’t going to dip down,” said Beane. “I mean, there were guys that we had the third round, that we could have taken with [the] Epenesa [pick], but we’re going best player available. And so that’s the way it was. Yeah there was, I thought there may be some that we that we liked at 54. I would have lost the bet today, I would have thought there would have been a wide receiver that we would have still had a second round grade on, but there wasn’t.”
Obviously, this means that the Bills’ scouting organization didn’t think much of the wideouts eventually drafted in the late second round: Van Jefferson (pick 57 to the Los Angeles Rams) and Denzel Mims (pick 59 to the New York Jets). It also means that Buffalo was still interested in targeting a wide receiver with a high pick. The team was able to pick up two receivers in the mid- to late-rounds in Gabriel Davis and Isaiah Hodgins, but it’s interesting thinking about what could have been if the draft had fallen a bit differently.