Assessing the strongest position groups in the 2025 NFL Draft

Beane was asked about which position group is the strongest in this year’s draft and he answered defense is where it’s at. Defensive line to be exact.

“I would say it’s a pretty good D-line draft,” Beane said.

Buffalo’s GM shared you can find a variety of flavors at the defensive line position in this year’s draft.

“There is a lot of different players. I was talking about the 3-4 guys. I don’t know 15 years ago or maybe even 10 years ago if we would have drafted a Javon Solomon, more of a 3-4 stand-up guy, but we found value in those guys. It’s a passing league. You’ve got to be able to get him down, so you’re trying to make sure you can find enough value for those,” he said.

As the NFL has shifted over the years to become a pass-heavy league filled with mobile quarterbacks, so to have the defensive linemen that are getting big second and third contracts.

“The guys that are getting paid big, big money, are the ones that can win when they get their one-on-one rush opportunities, and the second part of that is get the quarterback down,” Beane explained. “More and more quarterbacks like ours are mobile. There’s not as many statues. So, it’s made it harder for some of these d-linemen that maybe are good rushers, but then they get to the top of the rush, and they don’t change direction well…you always have two parts to that rusher. Can he beat the, let’s just say it’s d-tackle, can he beat the guard or the center? And then secondly, once he wins, can he get that quarterback down, especially the mobile guys.”

In tracking more than 120 mock drafts, defensive line has been the favorite position heading to Buffalo with the 30th overall pick. Defensive tackle is the favorite with Kenneth Grant out of Michigan getting mocked to Buffalo 22 times out of the 124 tracked. Behind defensive line is cornerback as the second favorite.

In discussing value of players when looking at how Buffalo rotates their defensive line but not their secondary, Beane said there’s benefits to having talent at both positions.

“If you’ve got a guy who can play man, can play zone, has speed, tackle, and turns the ball over, that could be more valuable than a lot of defensive tackles, especially a two-down player who is more of a run player than a pass rusher,” Beane explained. “So, I think you would truly have to discuss, player vs. player, where is the most value? We had Josh Norman in Carolina, even Tre’Davious (White) here when he was rolling, and we paid him as a No. 1 guy. We could match up Tre’Davious on a team, you know what I’m saying? He would be more valuable than a number of defensive tackles. Probably not more valuable than Aaron Donald. No disrespect to him. Just using those comparisons.”