Bills should find an ace in a deep draft for cornerbacks

ORCHARD PARK – Stephon Gilmore wasn’t always the most popular player among Bills fans because the 2012 first-round draft pick too often left them wanting for more.

Cornerback is a highly volatile and visible position in the NFL, and if you get beat a few times, which of course Gilmore did, those plays are typically noteworthy. And unless you’re offsetting the occasional bad plays with interceptions or pass breakups, your Q-rating will suffer.

In Gilmore’s case, he was a somewhat unfairly under-appreciated player. He wasn’t nearly as incompetent as some thought, but with only 14 interceptions in 68 games as a Bill, it never seemed like he belonged in the upper tier of NFL corners.

Well, Bill Belichick thought otherwise and signed the free agent to a whopping five-year, $65 million contract, and there’s a very good chance Bills fans are going to realize just how valuable Gilmore was now that he’s gone.

As the Bills prepare for the 2017 draft, they have a gaping hole in their secondary. They addressed safety concerns by signing free agents Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer, but they are woefully thin at cornerback (nickel corner Nickell Robey-Coleman also left via free agency). Starter Ronald Darby is back, but behind him on the depth chart, the only two players who were on the team last season are second-year player Kevon Seymour (285 defensive snaps) and fourth-year pro Marcus Roberson (28 snaps).

The Bills are desperate for help, and with the 10th overall pick in the first round, it would make a whole lot of sense to address the need Thursday night.

“I certainly understand where you’re coming from on that, but we’re going to look at every position to improve this football team,” said coach Sean McDermott, honoring the long-standing NFL tradition of being as vanilla as possible, especially at this time of the year.

McDermott did at least acknowledge the vast consensus among draft gurus that the cornerback class is exceptionally enticing in 2017.

“I would say it’s one of the deeper positions in this draft,” McDermott said. “That said, we have to find the right fit for our football team and the schemes that we run. Corner is an important position and you talk about affecting quarterbacks, right? I’m a big believer in trying to affect quarterbacks from the defensive side of the football, and cornerbacks are an important part of that in terms of that formula. That’s a position we’re looking hard at.”

They’d better be. Darby had a down season after a promising rookie year in 2015, and Seymour is a 2016 sixth-round pick who remains a raw player with a lot to learn. The remaining group of Roberson, Marcus Cromartie, Charles Gaines, and Leonard Johnson do not have starting capability, so the Bills almost have to pick a player who can come in and start immediately as a rookie, just as Darby did.

ESPN’s Mel Kiper recently said on the First Draft podcast he does with colleague Todd McShay, “I had 18 DBs in the first two rounds; 18. The defensive backs in this group, both corner and safety, it’s as deep as we’ve seen in a long, long time.”

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McShay pointed out that over the last five years, the average number of corners and safeties taken in the first round is six, and it’s 11 over the first two rounds. This year, he has first- or second-round grades on 20. “This looks like the strongest defensive back group we’ve seen in a while,” said McShay.

NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock said that the depth is so great, a needy team like the Bills should be able to find a starter-worthy talent well beyond the first round. “This is a great corner class,” said Mayock. “If you don't get one in the first round, you can come back in the second or third round and really help yourself.”

It’s impossible to know what the Bills are thinking because they also have a glaring need at wide receiver, and there’s been a lot of smoke around the idea that they might draft a quarterback at No. 10. If they go with a corner, the consensus top guy is Ohio State’s Marshon Lattimore, but there’s a good chance he’ll be gone before the Bills get a chance to pick him.

McShay called Lattimore and Florida’s Teez Tabor (a projected late first-, early second-rounder) as “the best two man-to-man corners in the class. Lattimore is more athleticism, quickness; Tabor is really smooth and quick as well, but what makes him really good is how effective he is using his hands and that’s so important when you get into the league and you’re working against receivers that know how to get off the press.”

Other players with first-round grades include Washington’s Kevin King, Ohio State’s Gareon Conley, Colorado’s Chidobe Awuzie, LSU’s Tre’Davious White, and Alabama’s Marlon Humphrey. In the second round, players like Tabor and his Florida teammate Quincy Wilson, Adoree Jackson of USC, Cordrea Tankersley of Clemson, Jourdan Lewis of Michigan, and Fabian Moreau of UCLA are considered players who could start right away in the proper situation.

Then there’s Washington’s Sidney Jones, who some believed was the best talent in the class, but then suffered a torn Achilles’ tendon at his pro day which has tanked his draft status. However, assuming he recovers and can play at some point this season, he might become the steal of the draft. “If Sidney Jones is sitting there, I’d jump all over him,” Mayock said. “He reminds me a lot of Marcus Peters (his former Huskies teammate who now is a star for the Kansas City Chiefs).”

Last year, after the Carolina Panthers lost star corner Josh Norman, defensive coordinator McDermott had to line up a pair of rookies on the outside, second-round pick James Bradberry and third-rounder Daryl Worley. In Buffalo, McDermott may be facing the prospect of starting another rookie.

“You want to find guys, especially in the first couple of rounds, that can come in and contribute,” he said. “Last year in Carolina, we were able to do that at the corner positions and so you go through, again, the makeup on the players and that’s part of the evaluation process. Are they mature enough to come in and execute at a high level early in their career? That’s what we’re going through now.”

MAIORANA@Gannett.com