Ranking Bills' Last 10 Draft Classes: From Whaley's Washout to Beane's Balling

The 2026 NFL Draft is the next stop for the Buffalo Bills down the highway that is the league's offseason, and now's the perfect time to look back on the team's draft history.

Buffalo will have the No. 26 overall pick when the draft begins on April 23, and the team is hoping for a draft similar to one that built the core that made the playoffs for seven straight seasons.

These 10 draft classes will be ranked from worst to best, so let's get started.

10. 2016

Best pick: DE Shaq Lawson

The last class of Doug Whaley's four-year tenure as the Bills' general manager provided extremely timid results, even by today's standards. Lawson, the team's first-round pick, played six seasons over two stints with the Bills, but outside of him and defensive tackle Adolphus Washington, none of 2016's draftees spent more than one season in Buffalo.

However, the worst of these picks is second-round linebacker Reggie Ragland, who missed his entire rookie season with a torn ACL and was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs after struggling to fit in Sean McDermott's new defense.

9. 2025

Best pick: DT Deone Walker

Given that this is the most recent draft class, it may be a bit too early to rank it, but it has to go somewhere. Walker, a fourth-round pick, started 16 games on the defensive interior as a rookie, and this class has promise with cornerback Maxwell Hairston and tight end Jackson Hawes, among others.

On the other hand, injuries plagued this draft class last season, especially with third-round defensive lineman Landon Jackson and sixth-round defensive back Dorian Strong, so their health needs to improve to make their selections worthwhile.

8. 2023

Best pick: G O'Cyrus Torrence

Torrence has started 50 out of 51 games for Buffalo in his first three seasons, but he's not the only positive. First-round tight end Dalton Kincaid made the Pro Bowl in 2025 despite injuries and linebacker Dorian Williams has shown flashes early in his career.

That's where the positives end, though. The Bills selected wide receiver Justin Shorter, offensive lineman Nick Broeker and defensive back Alex Austin on the draft's third day, but none of them played a game for Buffalo.

7. 2024

Best pick: S Cole Bishop

Keon Coleman's second-round bust status has been well-noted for a while now, especially since DJ Moore arrived in town from Chicago. That shouldn't take anything away from safety Cole Bishop, a former second-round pick who had a stellar second season with 85 tackles, four tackles for loss, seven passes defensed and three interceptions.

Elsewhere, running back Davis became an All-Pro kick returner as a fourth-round pick, and guard Sedrick Van Pran-Granger and defensive linemen Javon Solomon and DeWayne Carter have served as depth pieces for Buffalo. The four other selections have 10 career games played between them.

6. 2020

Best pick: WR Gabe Davis

Davis is the definition of mercurial for Buffalo. He has had eight 100-yard games in five seasons with Buffalo, including his 201-yard, four-touchdown performance against the Chiefs in the 2022 divisional round, but he has had 13 games without a catch with the Bills.

Second-round defensive end A.J. Epenesa was a fixture in the Bills' rotation up front, kicker Tyler Bass has been the starting kicker when healthy since being selected in the sixth round and seventh-round cornerback Dane Jackson has started 28 games for Buffalo over five seasons. Not much else with the Bills' 2020 draft class.

5. 2019

Best pick: DT Ed Oliver

Oliver was a three-time All-American at Houston, and although he has not played at a similar level in the NFL, he is still one of the Bills' better defenders. He has 56 tackles for loss and 30 sacks in seven seasons.

The pick Buffalo received in the Ragland trade was used to trade up to select tight end Dawson Knox, the team's all-time receiving touchdown leader by a tight end. Guard Cody Ford and running back Devin Singletary started regularly during their short tenures with the Bills, and defensive back Jaquan Johnson and defensive lineman Darryl Johnson spent significant time on special teams.

4. 2021

Best pick: OT Spencer Brown

This draft class has fewer key contributors than the 2019 class, but the impact that Brown, a third-round pick out of Northern Iowa, and edge rusher Greg Rousseau, Buffalo's first-round pick out of Miami, is bigger at more important positions. Brown has been the Bills' starting right tackle since he was drafted and Rousseau has averaged seven sacks every 17 games.

Safety Damar Hamlin has been as big a story as any NFL player in recent memory, and he re-signed with the Bills in March to be a part of the rotation. Otherwise, second-round defensive end Boogie Basham had just 4.5 sacks in two seasons with Buffalo and the other four selections have only 17 combined games played for the Bills.

3. 2022

Best pick: RB James Cook

Now into the top three, Cook, the Bills' second-round selection out of Georgia, worked his way to the NFL's rushing title in 2025 and Khalil Shakir has developed well as a former fifth-round pick to become the team's long-term slot receiver.

Defensively, Buffalo made up for their whiff on first-round cornerback Kaiir Elam with sixth-rounder Christian Benford out of Villanova, who has become one of the most underrated corners in the game. Linebacker Terrel Bernard, whom the Bills chose in the third round, is a candidate to replace Matt Milano as the team's defensive signal-caller.

Aside from the Elam pick, the only pick Buffalo whiffed on was punter sixth-round punter Matt Ariaza, who was cut in August of his rookie year amid a gang rape allegation, which was dropped the following December.

2. 2017

Best pick: OT Dion Dawkins

McDermott made all the decisions of this draft before firing Whaley and the team's entire scouting staff the next day, and his choices paid off in spades. Despite trading with the Chiefs, who selected Patrick Mahomes in the process, Buffalo found contributors everywhere.

Dawkins, one of the Bills' second-round picks, has made five Pro Bowls as Buffalo's left tackle, and cornerback Tre'Davious White and linebacker Matt Milano were All-Pro selections at different points in their careers.

One of the two flops was linebacker Tanner Vallejo, who only lasted one season in Buffalo. The other, fifth-round quarterback Nathan Peterman, provided the NFL with a meme that lasted as long as his two-year Bills tenure that began with his five-interception first half in Week 11 of 2017.

1. 2018

Best pick: QB Josh Allen

General manager Brandon Beane's first draft class is undoubtedly the best one of the past decade. He traded up for Allen, who became the franchise face the Bills have lacked since Jim Kelly, winning the league's MVP award in 2024.

The defense gained plenty of difference-makers, too. Linebacker Tremaine Edmunds, the Bills' second first-round pick in 2018, made back-to-back Pro Bowls for Buffalo. Taron Johnson, a fourth-round cornerback out of Weber State, was the team's slot corner before his trade to Las Vegas in March and defensive tackle Harrison Phillips was a key depth piece up front for four seasons.

The Bills' special teams also got a couple of important cogs. Sixth-round receiver Ray-Ray McCloud only lasted one season with Buffalo, but defensive back Siran Neal led the Bills in special-teams tackles in six seasons with them.

As for misses, seventh-round receiver Austin Proehl never played an NFL game and guard Wyatt Teller made four Pro Bowls after being traded to the Cleveland Browns in 2019. Still, that shouldn't take anything away from this group's excellence.