Bills GM Brandon Beane on draft strategy: ‘We didn’t have to just go chase a certain position’

The Buffalo Bills were one of the busier teams in the NFL free-agency period.

They signed 18 players. Thirteen were on offense, where they needed the most help after struggling badly on that side of the ball during last year’s 6-10 finish.

‘You don’t get everything in free agency’

That left open the ability to enter last week’s NFL Draft without the heavy burden of having to address glaring needs. Except, however, the Bills had one they were able to hit with the ninth overall pick: defensive tackle Ed Oliver from the University of Houston.

“Listen, you always target a lot of guys and you don’t get everything in free agency,” Bills General Manager Brandon Beane told Jim Miller and Pat Kirwan on Movin’ The Chains. “But we felt like we were able to hit enough of our needs that we didn’t have to just go chase a certain position.

‘We didn’t know if it would fall our way’

“The three-tech was probably the one, losing Kyle Williams (to retirement), that if you were going to pick a hole that we really wanted to come out of there with, we did. We didn’t know if it would fall our way, but we were sure thrilled that Ed Oliver was there at nine.”