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Who moved to the head of the NFL class during the draft? Find out with FanHouse's team-by-team 2009 Draft Grades.The Buffalo Bills seemed destined to acquire a pass-rusher on the first day of the NFL Draft, and their 11th overall pick was a perfect place for that: with Tyson Jackson, Everette Brown and Aaron Maybin all available, the Bills weren't going to have a problem there.
Then they traded Jason Peters to the Eagles for the 28th overall pick, a fourth-rounder in 2009 and a sixth-rounder in 2010. While the deal -- particularly with Peters unhappy in Buffalo -- made some sense, it still created a whole new set of problems in terms of Buffalo addressing the draft.
Fortunately for them, Maybin's stock began plummeting leading up to the draft and there was a large pool of potentially studly left tackles, including Jason Smith, Eugene Monroe, Andre Smith and Michael Oher. One seemed likely to drop all the way to 11.
Then something weird happened: the Bills made an early trigger-pull on Maybin at 11 and grabbed Eric Wood, a center, at 28 after the Ravens jumped up to 23 and snared Oher. Surely they realized what was going to happen.
Because having Russ Brandon suddenly pause after picking Wood and go, "Oh, #%^$, we got that pick for Peters didn't we????" would be a very, very awkward scenario.
Draft Picks
1.11 (11) - Maybin, DE, Penn State
1.28 (28) - Wood, C, Louisville
2.10 (42) - Jairus Byrd, CB, Oregon
2.19 (51) - Andrew Levitre, G, Oregon State
4.21 (121) - Shawn Nelson, TE, Southern Miss
5.11 (147) - Nic Harris, LB, Oklahoma
6.10 (183) - Cary Harris, CB, USC
7.11 (220) - Ellis Lankster, CB, West Virginia
Of course, that fictional scenario I described above is just that: fictional. Because, as you can see, the Bills didn't draft a left tackle at all. Their picks weren't bad, per se, but the problem is, they still don't have a left tackle like Peters on the team, and they certainly didn't maximize the value that comes with two first round picks when they made their decisions this year.
Grade: B-. And, as a result, they didn't take full advantage of the inherent value in having a really, really strong OT class. Maybin and Wood could end up being excellent (and Wood can play C or G, and versatility on the line is something Buffalo needs) but they were both reaches at the spot the Bills took them, which rings eerily similar to John McCargo a few years back.
Grabbing Levitre in the middle of the second round was a steal, and Nelson will be an eventual improvement over Robert Royal. But there's no way the Bills, who signed Terrell Owens to a one-year deal under the presumption of contending in 2009, can get anything higher than a mid-to-low B based on their inability to score a replacement at tackle.
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