Bills, Bucs get late draft shoutouts … In the process of putting the finishing touches of our files for both the full selection order for the 2026 draft, as well for the picks by team, we noted the drafts of a couple of teams that maybe didn’t quite get the credit they deserved in the immediate post-draft reaction. One was Buffalo which came into the draft with just a couple of top 125 picks, but after a series of 3 separate trade downs from their original first-round selection, the 26th overall, all of a sudden the Bills had 5 picks in that range. When the dust had settled, the Bills were able to still snag former Clemson DE TJ Parker, a player they likely had on their short list at #26, with the 35th pick. The Bills also had a productive 3rd day when got a group of quality prospects including UConn WR Skyler Bell and TCU LB Kaleb Elarms-Orr in the 4th, South Carolina S Jalon Kilgore and Penn State DT Zane Durant in the 5th and TexasA&M OG Ar’maj Reed-Adams in the 7th. On the other hand, Tampa Bay seemed content to sit where they were throughout much of the draft, but still were able to get Miami DE Rueben Bain, a legit top 10 candidate with the 15th overall, as well as several other players who had been considered to be rising prospects at some point in the pre-draft process including Missouri LB Josiah Trotter, Georgia State WR Ted Hurst, Miami CB Keionte Scott, Clemson DT Demonte Capehart and Notre Dame OG Billy Schrauth. Meanwhile, it was tough to argue that Atlanta didn’t maybe have the worst draft of any team. The Falcons didn’t have a first round pick this year as they traded it away in 2026 to get a player who is in jail, or at least facing serious criminal charges. Atlanta had used this year’s #1 pick to trade back up into the latter part of last year’s opening round to select ER James Pearce, who did have a solid rookie campaign posting 10.5 sacks, but now faces an uncertain future after he was arrested in Florida in February on two charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and one count of aggravated stalking stemming from a domestic dispute while he was also charged with fleeing and eluding police officers, aggravated battery of a law enforcement officer and resisting an officer. If there is any consolation for the Falcons its that they did get a potential replacement for Pearce when they selected LB/ER Harold Perkins, who is something of a clone, in the 6th round.
