The Buffalo Bills will have an option to draft a cornerback with the 25th overall selection, according to ESPN analyst Todd McShay.
One option. Probably.
McShay thinks Clemson’s Andrew Booth Jr. will be on the board and would be a good pick for the Bills.
Like most draft observers, McShay sees the top two cornerbacks being long gone by the 25th pick. They are Louisiana State’s Derek Stingley Jr. and Cincinnati’s Sauce Gardner. McShay thinks the third best cornerback, Washington’s Trent McDuffie, also will be gone.
“I think he’ll be off the board when the Bills pick at 25,” McShay said on a conference call Thursday. “Then I think the realistic option becomes Andrew Booth, the Clemson cornerback. He has good size. Not elite but good size and he’s really athletic.”
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Cornerback arguably would be the top need pick for the Bills in the first round, given that starter Levi Wallace left in free agency for Pittsburgh and star Tre’Davious White is recovering from knee surgery.
ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr. doesn’t think No. 25 is a good spot for the Bills to take a cornerback. He thinks there will be much better value at other positions, like wide receiver.
Booth has pretty good size, at 6-feet, 194 pounds and with 31½-inch arms. He played 35 games for Clemson with 15 starts. He’s good in run support and looks like a good fit for a team that likes to play a lot of zone coverage, like the Bills. Booth did not work out at the NFL Scouting Combine. He underwent a sports hernia operation recently.
“I think you could get Booth and feel good about it,” McShay said. “I’d say 25 to 32 is the range I expect him to go and is the value that matches up with the player. ... But there are other positions. ... There are some really good players to be had at that range.”
McShay doesn’t see any other corners after Booth being worthy of a first-round pick. He also thinks the Bills could get a viable offer to trade back with a team that might want to move up to get a quarterback. He mentioned Detroit and Atlanta, picking second and eighth, respectively, as teams that probably won’t take a QB with their first pick but might take one with their second selection.
“I think that’s the range where if a team’s trying to move back into the first round get a quarterback ... trading back would not be a bad option if they gate the possibility,” McShay said.
