College Football is right around the corner. Ohio State plays its Week One game Aug 30 vs Texas at Noon EST. Clemson plays its first game Aug 30 at 7:30 vs LSU on ABC. Even before those compelling contests, this year’s “Week Zero” game, Iowa State vs Kansas State in Dublin, Ireland, is at Noon on my birthday, August 23.
We watch college games for many reasons, but I watch college football to find players who might help the Bills get up the final mountain and claim the Lombardi at the summit. Below, you’ll find six players I’ve identified as early fits for our team for each of Beane’s 7 picks in the 2026 NFL Draft. I do a “Pick Six” every other month right up to the draft.
I keep receipts, too: Last year’s Pick Sixes identified Deone Walker (RD1 pick in October!), TJ Sanders (RD2 in March and April), Max Hairston (RD2 pick in October, RD1 by March, and again in April‘s Final High Character Edition), Landon Jackson in RD2 in April’s High Character Edition, and Jordan Hancock (RD3 last August). Darien Porter was actually a RD2 pick on my April Pick Six, and the Bills snared him in UDFA. My RD4 pick in April, Dorian Strong, was drafted in RD6 with the #177. Moreover, many of my 2024 picks returned to school and will be future Pick Sixes!
I wish you plenty of football Saturdays this fall! Let’s go!
ROUND 1 #32:
Dillon Thieneman plays the majority of his snaps as a center fielder (20+ yds deep). I really like how he gets his teammates in position, and his speed and fearlessness at striking his head in the fan: he has averaged SIX solo tackles per game over his career. You see fluid hips, quick diagnosis, anticipation and awareness. Watch This. Thieneman’s work ethic is impeccable; he’s always at the facility early. Jalon Kilgore may be a luxury if Jordan Hancock works out as well as I think he will, but he can also be the next Taron, or a bigger Cam Lewis. Kilgore has built-in football radar. Jalon tied for the SEC lead with 5 interceptions last season, tying Jaylan Foster’s 2021 total for the most by a Gamecock in the last 20 years. Watch This. He has the Safety class’s best interview in my opinion. Just Listen. I’ve mentioned my love for Jake Slaughter in my Elimination Game: Centers article. Florida has seen two offensive linemen earn All-SEC honors: Jake Slaughter and O’Cyrus Torrence.. Slaughter is SEC’s top offensive player per Pro Football Focus. Nick Singleton is a thunder back with breakaway speed that would assure the Bills are the #1 rushing team in the NFL. Watch This.
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ROUND 2 #64:
Speaking of great interviews, Zachariah Branch of Georgia has one of three great wide receiver interviews, but I didn’t take him as one of my Pick Sixes. I doubt adiminutive receiver with 4.3 speed and return skills is going to be one of Beane’s top two priorities, what with speedsters Curtis Samuel (age 28, 3-year contract), Elijah Moore (25, 1 year contract), and KJ Hamler (26, 1 year contract), but an early pick of an “X” receiver like Nyck Harbor, Branch, or Malachi Fields is conceivable. The Bills seem stacked at the CB position, but, as with Hairston, mediocrity is but an injury away. CB Davison Igbinosun and Nickel Corner D’angelo Ponds are available here. What about EDGE? Epenesa is a FA in 2026, so SEC EDGEs Joshua Josephs and Patrick Payton could be in play. While neither are the bigger edge-sealer types, OLB/EDGE Josephs comes from a defensive scheme that would help him assimilate into the Bills’ system faster. Josephs is arguably the best run-defending EDGE, but pressure wins football games. Brandon Beane always looks for high Pressures Per Game versus high-level opponents, and Patrick Payton‘s 1.79 PPG is Top 5, and he’s done it against ACC offensive tackles. Payton has Rousseau’s length, Solomon’s hip fluidity and bend around the corner, which already led Bills scouts to several of Payton’s games against top-flight OTs at Clemson (Blake Miller), Pitt (Matt Goncalves), and Wake Forest (Michael Jurgens) in 2023, and brought scouts to games in 2024 against Clemson (Miller), Miami (Jalen Rivers), and Notre Dame (Tosh Baker). It’s also possible that Beane uses the Bills’ RD2 to move up higher in RD1.
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ROUND 3 #96:
A frequent flier on my Pick Sixes for the third year, ‘Bama’s Keon Sabb transferred from Michigan where he was poised to take over Mike Sainristil’s role. The Bills value career solo tackles per game, and Sabb has logged an extremely high number of them no matter where he’s played. Sabb now joins PFF’s 2nd Ranked Secondary in College Football –Alabama. He’s interchangeable between FS and SS, a quality the Bills like and opportunistic on pass plays. Watch This. Will there be 2 players named Keon on the Bills’ starting roster? ILB Whit Weeks is in the driver’s seat of the LSU defense, coming off 2024 First-Team All-SEC nomination and finishing No. 2 in the league in tackles with 125. He had 6 double-digit tackle games in 2024, 5 coming in league play … Earned SEC Defensive Player of the Week honors twice in 2024 (vs. Ole Miss and Oklahoma), and in one scouted game vs USC, Whit made 6 tackles, 1.5 of them TFLs. Watch This. Malachi Fields is that big, fast, “X” receiver some of you think the Bills don’t have. Fields caught a 44-yard touchdown at No. 10 Clemson (10/19), the only scouted game for VA. He’s now at Notre Dame, who went 11-1 last season. His new HC is Marcus Freeman, who was briefly on the Bills’ practice squad in 2009. Watch This. Charles Jagusah (“JAGG-uh-saw”) was a successful wrestler in HS, posting a 41-0 record and winning the state title as a junior. However, he plays RG/RT, where the Bills are pretty flush. Lander Barton played with Cole Bishop, has Tremaine-like size at 6-4, 242, but more aggressive than Edmunds, and Milano’s speed, 4.64. Watch This. He had 3 tackles and 6 tackles in the scouted games vs OK State and Arizona, respectively. Jaishawn Barham is a tackling machine, an excellent run defender but not as great in coverage. He projects as a 4-2-5 inside ‘backer. We may have an All-Pro there, backed up well with Andreessen and Ulofoshio.
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ROUND 4 #132:
The next two picks are where Beane shows why he’s a man among boys. First, Beane looks to the offensive side of the ball, specifically at two “X” receivers, both of whom had elite interviews: Dane Key and J.Michael Sturdivant, who just missed my Six here. Key, who switched to Nebraska from Kentucky for the upcoming season, was the top receiver for Kentucky in the 2024 Bills-scouted game against Ole Miss with a 8-105-1 TD contribution. Watch This. Listen to Dane talk about his new HC Matt Rhule here. Sturdivant has more meat on the skeleton and has impressive speed, and this interview about Chip Kelly really impressed me. Just missing the cut was ‘Y’-receiver Jaden Greathouse, whose YPC against AP-ranked teams was even more impressive than the others: 15.5 on 25 catches vs Sturdivant’s 15.8 on only 5 catches. Watch Greathouse at the top of the screen here. Key has shown more sustained success over time: he caught 13 passes for 13.2 YPC in 2024, 15.9 on 17 in 2023, and 19.2 on 9 in 2022. The raw tools and upside of Georgia’s blindside protector Monroe Freeling impress me, and I expect him to vault up boards. Watch This. If the Bills still need extra safety help, both FS Jalen Catalon (Mizzou) and FS CB Michael Taaffe (Texas) are worth keeping an eye on this season.
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ROUND 5 #172:
If you grab Sabb, make a play for Bray!! Bray Hubbard is the interchangeable safety in this draft not named Sabb, and both Sabb and Hubbard have experience in Bama’s 4-2-5 defense the Bills run. Hubbard’s athletic, great at closing on the ball in the air and on ball carriers (Watch This), elite positional awareness, blah blah blah, but his greatest asset is actually versatility. In fact, 31% of his snaps have been in Nickel, 31% Box, and 38% CB. All this on PFF’s 2nd-Ranked Secondary in College Football. Two linebackers catch my eye here: Kyle Louis at Pitt (Watch This) and Red Murdock at Buffalo (Watch This). Kyle Louis is the versatile, OLB<->SS type. Remember that Matt Milano was a former college safety who transitioned to WLB. Both Louis and Murdock held their own against the best TEs in coverage. Inside Linebacker Red Murdock, a local kid, is the next Joe Andreessen. An All-MAC and Academic All-MAC linebacker, Red ranked second in the nation in tackles with 156 and led the nation with a school-record SEVEN forced fumbles in 2024 (breaking Robert Mathis’s record). Top top that, Red’s given name is Khalil. Dante Dowdell, now at Kentucky, is worth tracking this year because he and Penn State’s Nick Singleton are the two “thunder backs” who are starters for P4 schools. Dowdell is a punishing runner with great vision, power, and agility (Watch This). He ripped off 12 TDs in 7 starts for the Huskers in 2024. We know the Bills have tuned in to Kentucky lately; Ray Davis, Deone Walker, and Max Hairston will attest.
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ROUND 7 #223:
If the Bills want to wait one more round, I’m not sure Cameron Seldon will be here. He’s faster than Dowdell, and Seldon’s a match for what the Bills want to do in terms of speed, build, work ethic, and attitude (Watch This). Brady may have a special package for Seldon, as he’s able to play both running back and quarterback. Seldon has low tread wear, as he only has totaled 48 carries for 224 yards and a touchdown, plus one reception in his two-year career. He also fielded 6 kick returns for 113 yards as a Volunteer, an average of 18.8 yards per return. There are some right guards available here, but it’s a position the Bills can afford to ignore. Right Tackle seems to be deep on the Bills, but Monroe Mills is a wrestler with Kromer’s measurables and solid interview [Listen]. The ILB spot might have room for another practice squadder, with speedy, solid Arvell Reese and Clemson’s Wade Woodaz worth a look.
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ROUND 7 #233:
I’m hoping the Bills bide their time at certain positions in the draft until Day 3. One of those positions is Thumper RB, and Mark Fletcher of Miami is my “Pet Cat” in that role (Watch This). Rasheem Biles, a starter at Pitt, and Jaren Kanak (“CAN-ick”), the backup for the Sooners, could offer depth at OLB. Biles can even double as a receiver and ballcarrier, possibly freeing up a spot in another position group. Ashton Stamps leads all returning SEC cornerbacks with six pass breakups in man coverage last year (Watch CB Top of Screen). DeAndre Moore is one of the best blockers in the WR class, and that skill carries a lot of cachet in Buffalo. Watch Front WR Bottom of Screen; think Gabe Davis). Another name “bears” watching: DT1T/DT3T Bear Alexander, as his “get home” ability (sacks plus TFLs per game, career) is second in this IDL class to TJ Parker. You can’t have enough interior defensive bears.
Editor’s babble: We cannot thank Dean Kindig enough for all the contributions he has made to our blog over the years. I’ve learned so much from him over the years. Be sure to wish him a very Happy Birthday tomorrow. You can find Dean on Xwitter @TCBILLS_Astro.
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