Buffalo Rumblings
Believe it or not — Buffalo Bills rookies will report to training camp St. John Fisher University tomorrow. We aren’t quite back to football yet. But it’s getting close. Very close.
With the rookies front-of-mind, I compiled a ranking of the first-year Bills based on how much I believe they will contribute in 2026.
The Bills selected Bowry in Round 4, and that’s the round-grade I had on him. As a draft analyst, when that alignment occurs, it’s nirvana.
However, these rankings aren’t strictly based on my pre-draft evaluations of each player. The Bills are apparently going to give Bowry a run at tackle to start his career, and there are three — if not four — players ahead of him on the roster, Dion Dawkins, Spencer Brown, Tylan Grable and 2025 draftee Chase Lundt.
It would not surprise me if Bowry eventually passes Lundt on the depth chart to position himself as the backup swing tackle, but the former Boston College star does need to get noticeably stronger — a statement I can make for just about every rookie blocker each season.
Because of that need to add power, I view Bowry as more of a player to be stored and developed for the 2027 season than an instant impact rookie, which is why he’s at No. 10 on this list.
I really liked Reed-Adams as a prospect. I had a third-round grade on him, therefore the Bills selecting him in Round 7 represented one of the larger steals in the entire draft based on my pre-draft evaluations compared to actual draft results.
Why I elected to put Buffalo’s last 2026 draft pick at the second-to-last spot here instead of No. 10 — what Reed-Adams may lack in lateral quickness and pure explosion he compensates with close to NFL-caliber power, and some of that is due to his age.
Reed-Adams will be 25 in November and spent the last two years blocking in the SEC after a stellar career at Kansas. At nearly 6’6” and 314 pounds with offensive-tackle length — 88th percentile arm length and 98th percentile wingspan — he’s a specimen, and on film at A&M he deployed his arms as real weapons at the point of attack.
The Bills lost David Edwards in free agency, and even though the likes of Alec Anderson and Austin Corbett project as the two candidates for the vacant starting left guard job, I expect Reed-Adams to surprise in training camp and the preseason before serving as an emergency — but capable — backup on the interior of Buffalo’s offensive line.
We aren’t exactly sure what Jim Leonhard’s defense will look like — beyond drawing conclusions from his time at Wisconsin and in Denver — so everything regarding the players on said defense is drastically more of a guess that it was during the Sean McDermott era.
I didn’t adore Durant on film as a prospect,...
