Team-by-Team Draft Review: Buffalo Bills

Dan Meylor

williams

Despite being without a long term option under center, the Bills have many of the pieces in place to be considered an up and coming offense. Although they were without a first round pick thanks to the deal that allowed them to get Sammy Watkins a year ago, Buffalo did everything they could to bolster both their offense and defense. They added a trio of potential offensive weapons late in the draft.

Let’s take a look at each of them.

Karlos Williams, RB (Round 5, Pick 155 overall)

Once considered by many as one of the premiere college runners after averaging 8.0 yards per carry and scoring 11 times on limited carries in 2013, Williams had a disappointing year for the Seminoles in his final year on campus. He handled the ball 150 times as a senior, but tallied just 689 yards and averaged only 4.6 yards per tote. While he was still effective around the goal line (he scored 11 times), his ineffectiveness at the second level and in the open field hurt his draft stock immensely.

A tall tailback at 6’-1”, Williams has an upright running style but has very good explosiveness at the line of scrimmage for his size. Excelling as a cutback runner, he has very little wasted movement in the backfield and hits the hole with authority, quickly squaring his shoulders and turning into a downhill runner.

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Williams is difficult to bring down at the point of attack. With powerful leg drive and impressive footwork for his size, he’s able to slip through small creases and drive through defenders making him a quality short yardage prospect. Using short, powerful steps, he runs through arm tackles with ease and forces defenders to wrap up to bring him to the ground. Once defenders get their arms around him, he always falls forward for additional yardage.

At the second level, Williams has the straight line speed (4.48 40-yard dash) to outrun many defenders but lacks the wiggle to make linebackers and safeties miss in the open field. Although he attempts to use a stiff arm at times, he simply tries to protect himself from big hits with it rather than delivering a blow which makes it relatively ineffective.

There are a couple other things working against Williams as a pro prospect. First, he doesn’t have a lot of experience as a tailback. After spending his first two seasons with the Seminoles as a defensive back, he only carried the ball 241 times in his final two seasons. Secondly, he was reportedly involved in a domestic battery case while in college. Although there weren’t any charges filed in the case, it was enough to throw up a red flag during the draft process.

Overall, Williams is a solid pro prospect, especially in the Bills’ one cut, power running scheme. Although he could stand to run a bit lower to the ground and lacks the elusiveness to make defenders miss at the second level, he’s a powerful runner who can break tackles and has the speed to be explosive in the right offense.

Despite having a disappointing senior season and landing in Buffalo where he’ll be forced to sit behind LeSean McCoy, Williams has the raw tools to develop into a starting NFL tailback with RB2 fantasy upside. It may take him a few years to realize that potential and he certainly has a low floor, but with an ADP near the end of the fourth round of rookie drafts, there are far worse lottery tickets for dynasty owners to try to cash in on.

Nick O’Leary, TE (Round 6, Pick 194 overall)

Despite being one of the most highly recruited tight ends in his high school class and winning the John Mackey Award as college football’s best tight end, O’Leary never truly realized his potential while at Florida State. Playing in 55 games in his college career, he improved his numbers every year but never became the vertical threat he once promised to be as a four-star recruit. In his final year on campus, he tallied 48 grabs for 618 yards (12.9 per catch) while hauling in six touchdowns.

While with the Seminoles, O’Leary was a passionate player and displayed good hands and a knack for finding openings in zone coverage. Primarily running hook, crossing and short out routes, he did a majority of his damage by making a big target for his quarterback and sliding between windows in the zone.

Although a tight end who works hard and has good hands is a good thing to have in an NFL locker room, it’s not necessarily what dynasty owners are looking for. O’Leary lacks the foot speed and agility to beat NFL caliber linebackers and safeties and doesn’t have the burst off the line of scrimmage to become a threat as a seem stretcher. With Charles Clay and Chris Gragg ahead of him on the depth chart in Buffalo, it’s difficult to project O’Leary as anything more than a reserve tight end and special teams contributor.

Dezmin Lewis, WR (Round 7, Pick 234 overall)

Lewis is an interesting small school prospect. In his final season at Central Arkansas, he dominated NCAA Division I competition as he hauled in 64 passes for 945 yards and nine touchdowns while playing in the Southland conference.

Although he doesn’t have incredible speed or impressive leaping ability, Lewis has great size (6’-4”, 214 pounds) and good hands. His vertical isn’t overwhelming (33.5 inches) but he displayed the ability to use his length as an asset while in college, regularly high pointing the ball or stretching for an inaccurate pass. He also shows good awareness on the field, repeatedly getting his toes in bounds while making difficult catches along the boundary.

Although Lewis was proficient all over the field while in college, he wasn’t asked to run the entire route tree. Instead, he was asked to perfect the fly pattern, comeback route, and crossing route. He’ll have to improve in that area at the next level to become a regular contributor.

Now that he’s in Buffalo, he’ll compete with Marquise Goodwin, Chris Hogan and Marcus Easley to be the Bills’ number four wide out behind Watkins, Percy Harvin and Robert Woods. Being just a number four receiver at this point, along with the lack of talent under center for the Bills, doesn’t paint a very bright picture for his potential as a fantasy contributor but dynasty owners should continue to monitor Lewis in the coming months. Despite being incredibly raw and needing a lot of grooming, he could become a seventh round surprise. While he’s not draftable except in incredibly deep leagues where nearly all NFL players owned, dynasty owners should keep Lewis on their radar.

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dan meylor