Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane has a lot of holes to fill in the 2026 NFL Draft, and only two picks in the top 100 to do so. The D.J. Moore trade cost the Bills their second-round pick, so now Buffalo needs to nail picks 26 and 91 in order to strengthen the depth chart. Nailing some draft sleepers will help, too, but those two picks are critical. And while there are several names in that range that could help, these are three players the Bills must avoid picking in 2026 NFL Draft.
EDGE T.J. Parker, Clemson
The Bills need another edge rusher in the 2026 NFL Draft. Pretty much everybody agrees on that. Gregory Rousseau isn’t the prototypical 3-4 outside linebacker-type, and Bradley Chubb is 30 with an extensive injury history. The plurality of 2026 NFL Mock Drafts have Beane taking an EDGE at 26, with names like Cashius Howell, Zion Young, and Keldric Young (who is more of an OLB/DE hybrid in a 3-4) in the mix.
Another name you will see is Clemson EDGE T.J. Parker. He is a player who makes a lot of sense based on how Beane has drafted in the past, but he is not a fit for the new Jim Leonhard defense. Parker is a 6-foot-4, 263-pound, long-armed DE who wins with power and fits the Beane mold. He is squarely in the Rousseau and A.J. Epenesa category of edge rusher.
In Leonhard’s aggressive 3-4, the Bills need a speed rusher off the edge capable of bursting off the line, bending around the tackle, and exploding into the quarterback. This is not how Parker wins on the line. Not to mention, while Parker was supremely effective in 2024, putting up 11.0 sacks, that number dropped to 5.0 last season when he didn’t have a dominant team around him.
LB C.J. Allen, Georgia
The reason the Bills should not take C.J. Allen in the 2026 NFL Draft has nothing to do with the talent or the style of the player or the fact that picking the Georgia linebacker would lead to three players having ALLEN on the back of their jerseys next season. This is strictly a positional value situation.
Allen is an excellent player who can stuff a stat sheet. Last season, he had 88 tackles, 8.0 tackles for a loss, 3.5 sacks, four passes defended, and two forced fumbles. Buffalo could absolutely use production like that and a natural leader who can wear the green dot and be an extension of Jim Leonhard on the field.
The problem here is that there are several off-ball LBs in this draft who can offer similar talent, production, and leadership without the heavy draft capital price tag.
Instead of Allen at 26 (or the top of Round 2 if they trade back), Beane can get a pass rusher or wide receiver—two positions where the talent falls off a lot quicker than at LB—in Round 1, then take a linebacker like Texas Tech’s Jacob Rodriguez on Day 2 or even Buffalo’s Red Murdock on Day 3.
WR Denzel Boston
Washington wide receiver Denzel Boston is another name that should make Bills fans nervous. The 6-foot-4, 212-pound wideout is, in theory, just what Josh Allen needs. He is a big, strong target who has the production and body type to be a true WR1 in the NFL.
However, when you look at any scouting report or scout Boston yourself, the dreaded “speed and separation concerns” come up. The former Huskies WR was excellent at contested catches in college and has a wide catch radius. He declined to run a 40 at the NLF combine and at his pro day, though, so the lack of cornerback-beating speed you see on tape seems real.
This is the same concern that draftniks have had about many big receivers over the years, including ones like Mike Evans. So, this concern isn’t a death knell. That said, two years removed from drafting Keon Coleman, who has embodied the speed and separation issues, is too soon to try it again. Coleman is still developing, so he could come good in Year 3, as many WRs do. So, if Beane wants to draft a pass-catcher with a high pick, he should look for a different archetype, ideally one who can run away from pro CBs.
