How the new players fit with the team

We won’t ever know because Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane will never tell us whether or not he coveted Iowa middle linebacker Jack Campbell in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft.

Of course, if he did or didn’t became a moot point when the Detroit Lions picked him No. 18 overall Thursday night, a bit higher than most draft analysts believed he’d go. However, I sure would have loved to see what Beane would have done if Campbell made it to Buffalo’s 27th slot.

Now that Tremaine Edmunds is gone, the need for a middle linebacker is glaring and because of that, I thought if there was one player who was the perfect pick for the Bills, it was Campbell.

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It wasn’t the two other highly-regarded linebackers (at least by draft analysts) – Arkansas’ Drew Sanders, who didn’t get picked until No. 67 in the third round by the Broncos, or Clemson’s Trenton Simpson, who went No. 86 to the Ravens.

Campbell was the guy, a 6-foot-4, 249-pounder (very close to Edmunds’ unique size for the position) who probably would have been plug-and-play in Week 1 next to Matt Milano. Now, he’ll be that player for the Lions.

Again, maybe Beane and his staff disagreed. Maybe Campbell was never in their plans and they were always hoping to pick tight end Dalton Kincaid of Utah, even if it meant trading up to No. 25 to do so, which is what they ultimately did.

But I’m not buying that. In fact, with Campbell gone, if not for the rapid wide receiver run that took place when Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Quintin Johnson, Zay Flowers and Jordan Addison went at picks 20 through 23, I think Beane would have taken one of them. Once that option also wilted away, that’s when he set his sights on Kincaid.

Look, I’m never going to pass definitive judgment on draft picks, or the viability of a draft class, for two years. It’s just…