SB Nation re-drafted the 2022 NFL Draft<\/a> and in addition to the change at the Elam pick for the Bills, Buffalo also lost two players in the first round that they were able to nab later in 2022.<\/p>\nAdvertisement<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s take a look:<\/p>\n
18. Tennessee Titans: Khalil Shakir, WR
Original Pick: Treylon Burks, WR<\/p>\n
The Treylon Burks experiment hasn\u2019t gone well at all, so in this re-draft the Titans opt for Shakir, who\u2019s been an explosive and dynamic target for the Bills out of the slot.<\/p>\n
The Bills lose their most consistent wide receiver to the Tennessee Titans in this re-draft. Shakir has 125 receptions for 1593 yards and seven touchdowns in 46 games for the Bills, with significant improvements to his numbers every year. In 2024, his 76\/821\/4 slash line was tops on the team in every category except TDs (he was one score behind Mack Hollins).<\/p>\n
Shakir signed a pretty nice deal this offseason while Burks has been a massive disappointment replacing A.J. Brown in Nashville.<\/p>\n
20. Pittsburgh Steelers: James Cook, RB
Original Pick: Kenny Pickett, QB<\/p>\n
Man, the Steelers really screwed up that pick huh? In this re-draft, the Steelers go with James Cook, who provides much more of a pop from the backfield in the run and passing game.<\/p>\n
The Steelers had Najee Harris at the time and during the 2022 offseason they added Jaylen Warren as a UDFA. Would drafting Cook in the first round be better than signing Warren as a UDFA? Not in contract terms, but Cook has been better than Warren for sure.<\/p>\n
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Cook has 533 rushes for 2638 yards and 20 touchdowns while adding 97 receptions for 883 yards and seven touchdowns through the air.<\/p>\n
23. Buffalo Bills: Christian Benford, CB
Original Pick: Kaiir Elam, CB<\/p>\n
Benford was supposed to be the smaller name CB who didn\u2019t show up as often for Buffalo, but has turned himself into one of the most underrated players at his position in the NFL. He\u2019s rewarded by going to Buffalo again, but this time he\u2019s five rounds higher.<\/p>\n
Benford signed a rich extension this offseason and it was well-deserved. It\u2019s nice to see him get some national recognition from SB Nation here. He\u2019s started 34 of 39 games that he\u2019s played in the NFL, with five picks, 25 passes defensed, four fumbles forced, two fumbles recovered, and a sack on top of his 142 tackles. That doesn\u2019t tell the whole story, though, as he\u2019s developed into the best cover corner on the Bills\u2019 roster.<\/p>\n
This is also the way the Bills handled the draft, luckily, double-dipping at cornerback with Benford taking over for Elam in the team\u2019s plans. In 29 games for the Bills (12 starts) he has two interceptions, six passes defended, one fumble recovery, and 81 tackles in the regular season. He was abused in the playoffs this year again the Chiefs in relief for the concussed Benford.<\/p>\n
According to Pro Football Focus, the Bills drafted several players in 2022 that are worthy of first-round picks in retrospect. Cook (tied for third), Terrel Bernard (tied for 30th), and Shakir (tied for 34th) are within striking distance according to PFR\u2019s Adjusted Value with Benford tied for 63rd. Elam is way further down, just ahead of Baylon Spector<\/p>\n
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More from buffalorumblings.com:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Buffalo Bills traded cornerback Kaiir Elam this offseason and the Dallas Cowboys recently announced they would not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2048],"tags":[8694,9230,215,214,53,2086,346,9227,257,7,3027,1736,8580,570,7468,9228,4125,6,57,394,9229,3025,4050],"class_list":{"0":"post-18331","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-bills","8":"tag-a-j-brown","9":"tag-baylon-spector","10":"tag-bills","11":"tag-buffalo","12":"tag-buffalo-bills","13":"tag-buffalobills","14":"tag-chiefs","15":"tag-christian-benford","16":"tag-dallas-cowboys","17":"tag-football","18":"tag-james-cook","19":"tag-jaylen-warren","20":"tag-kaiir-elam","21":"tag-kenny-pickett","22":"tag-khalil-shakir","23":"tag-mack-hollins","24":"tag-najee-harris","25":"tag-nfl","26":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","27":"tag-tennessee-titans","28":"tag-terrel-bernard","29":"tag-the-bills","30":"tag-treylon-burks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114439182388341535","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}