Buffalo Bills General Manager Buddy Nix, Assistant General Manager Doug Whaley and Bills Director of College Scouting Chuck Cook held their annual draft luncheon for the media, and took questions in regards to this month NFL Draft. Here are their thoughts on some of the prospects, and maybe some clues as to who they might select next week.
Stanford offensive tackle Jonathan Martin:
Doug Whaley: You look at Jonathan Martin first of all coming from Stanford; he’s going to be a highly intelligent guy. He’s a competitive guy. I think he’s a guy that has a chance to play both left and right tackle, so the versatility for him makes him very intriguing.
Iowa offensive tackle Riley Reiff:
Doug Whaley: Reiff, you just look at the pedigree from guys coming from Iowa. They’re well schooled, well coached. The head coach there has coached in the league so he knows how to produce NFL linemen. You’re going to get a guy that we believe, most people believe, and the pedigree from that school are going to come in and step in and compete right off the bat. Reiff, I think he can play both, left and right. I think you start him out on the left and see how he goes from there.
Georgia offensive tackle Cordy Glenn:
Doug Whaley: With Glenn for us a guy of that size and that type of foot athlete you’d try him out at left tackle. He’s got a chance to play there and produce there at a high level.
Boston College linebacker Luke Kuechly:
Buddy Nix: He could play all three for us. (Nix meant the three linebacker spots for a 4-3 defense, which the Bills are switching to this year.)
South Carolina cornerback Stephon Gilmore:
Chuck Cook: Gilmore from South Carolina, we like him. We think he’s a good strong sturdy corner that can press, can run in a hip pocket and he makes plays. We like his physical-ness in coming up in support.
Alabama cornerback Dre Kirkpactrick:
Chuck Cook: Dre obviously from a great scheme in Alabama. They’re known they’re so solid up front. That helps the corners, obviously helps the DB’s. He can play more physical. He can play the ball and he can gamble a little bit more in that scheme because they are getting to the quarterback quicker. I think he’s physical, he can support and he’s proven that. He can play the deep ball.
Notre Dame wide receiver Michael Floyd:
Chuck Cook: We think he’s a big physical good looking receiver with really strong hands and body control. Just think the guy really has upside. He’s a guy that we think he’s a football player. You’d like to consider him at some time but you never know what’s going to happen. He’s a good looking kid and we think he’s going to be a big pro.
Georgia Tech wide receiver Stephen Hill:
Chuck Cook: At the workout and at the combine it was very impressive. A guy with that height and that speed to be able to do what he does physically it’s rare, you don’t see every day. Now the thing that you kind of have to balance is you don’t see just because of the offense that he plays in you don’t see him doing that on the football field. It’s one of those things where it’s going to be a balancing act. It’s a little bit of a roll of the dice just because you’d like to see him in an offense where he’s going to be making all of those running the route tree for a receiver, you don’t see that. You see the ability that he can do it from the work outs. The guy is very impressive and it’s something that’s very intriguing with his physical attributes.
Central Florida cornerback Josh Robinson:
Chuck Cook: Josh Robinson from Central Florida ran like a deer at the underwear and shorts (Combine). He’s tremendously fast. He showed things. We saw him pre-Combine and evaluated him. And then he goes and runs good. He’s got upside and that’s how we’re stacking them. We’re stacking guys that we think can come in here and fit what we do.
Georgia cornerback Brandon Boykin:
Chuck Cook: He’s got kickoff return ability and we think the guy’s got a chance to be a potential player.
Nebraska linebacker Lavonte David:
Doug Whaley: We believe Lavonte David is an instinctive guy that adds an added bonus of being able to detach from the box and cover a split out wide receiver or a flex tight end which we’re going to be seeing a lot of in our division.
Miami linebacker Sean Spence:
Doug Whaley: Sean Spence is a heck of a football player. He’s instinctive, more in the box, and if he was two inches taller we’d probably be talking about him as a MIK (short for middle inside linebacker) because of his instincts and his ability to play the run
