The Bills hold an all-time series lead against the Jets.
But when it comes to the 2018 NFL draft, chalk up one big win for Gang Green.
New York’s decision to trade up into the No. 3 spot, held by Indianapolis, wasn’t made Saturday just to land a quarterback. It was to insure — as best the Jets could — Buffalo wouldn’t leapfrog them to get the signal-caller they may be targeting.
MORE: NFL Mock Draft 2018
The Bills began that process earlier this week by jumping from No. 21 to No. 12 in a trade with Cincinnati that sent left tackle Cordy Glenn to the Bengals. Buffalo has ample draft-pick ammunition to continue scaling the ladder, like Philadelphia did in 2015 when making two trades that netted the No. 2 overall pick and quarterback Carson Wentz.
I’m told Jets brass were seriously concerned about the Bills' moves — and the possibility of them vaulting past New York at No. 6. Those fears were compounded after New York lost out on prized free agent Kirk Cousins to Minnesota. That won’t be as easy with the Jets sitting in the slot originally held by Indianapolis, which wasn’t targeting a quarterback at No. 3 (under the hope Andrew Luck can fully recover from his serious shoulder injury).
The only potential trade partners for Buffalo now are Cleveland and the Giants. The Browns are expected to select a quarterback with the top overall choice while using their No. 4 selection to either bolster another position or trade back.
The Giants may go the quarterback route at No. 2. That means the Bills must decide whether it’s worth surrendering a bevy of picks to entice the Giants to bail out. New York still might be uninterested in doing so — even if it's not picking a quarterback — because of Penn State standout Saquon Barkley’s appeal as a generational running back.
Plus, the Bills could now receive additional competition from another team in better position to skip ahead, provided a quarterback is within their sights. That’s Denver, which sits at No. 5 and may still be enticed to draft a quarterback, even after this week’s costly free-agent signing of Case Keenum. There’s also the possibility the Broncos could try to bluff Buffalo — which went the bridge quarterback route in free agency with AJ McCarron — into making a deal.
MORE: Top 50 prospects of NFL Draft
The consensus top four quarterbacks in this year’s draft class are Wyoming’s Josh Allen, USC's Sam Darnold, Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield and UCLA’s Josh Rosen.
No quarterback has been identified as Cleveland’s favorite yet. But by sending second-round picks in the next two drafts to Indianapolis, the Jets don’t appear worried about it, even if their top option is gone.
With the way the draft is already unfolding, it wouldn’t be a surprise if three quarterbacks are taken in the top five picks for the first time since 1999, when Tim Couch, Donovan McNabb and Akili Smith were taken with the top three picks overall.
The Jets just have to hope that whomever they choose works out for them like McNabb in Philadelphia rather than the draft disasters that Couch and Smith became with Cleveland and Cincinnati, respectively.
And for that matter, better than the two wasted picks Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan already used on the position in previous drafts in Christian Hackenberg and Bryce Petty.
