Bills now one pick short in 2023 NFL Draft following trade deadline moves

Let’s look ahead at the picks the Bills have in 2023

The Buffalo Bills selected eight players in the 2022 NFL Draft, and that’s the number of drafts picks they had heading into the weekend. Looking ahead to the 2023 NFL Draft, they only have seven picks on the board as of right now.

At the trade deadline in 2022, the Bills sent a conditional Day 3 pick to the Indianapolis Colts as part of the deal for running back Nyheim Hines. It’s a sixth-rounder that could escalate to a fifth-round selection based on incentives. (We don’t know those incentives.)

Immediately following the move to acquire Hines, Buffalo traded their 2023 seventh-round pick for safety Dean Marlowe. The former Bills safety comes home while Buffalo struggles with injury at the position.

The Bills had previously acquired an additional fifth-round pick when they dealt third-year guard Cody Ford to the Arizona Cardinals prior to the start of the 2022 regular season.

In August of 2020 (yes, that long ago), the Bills traded a conditional seventh-round selection in 2023 for linebacker Andre Smith, but those conditions weren’t met when Smith was released, and the pick went back in Buffalo. Smith was a third-year player for the Carolina Panthers after being drafted with the 2018 seventh-rounder the Bills sent to Carolina as part of the deal for WR Kelvin Benjamin.

Smith signed a two-year extension with the Bills in 2021 for near the veteran minimum. He’s appeared in 27 games over the last two seasons playing mostly special teams, and didn’t see the field on defense at all in 2021.

If Buffalo wants to have a full complement of 2023 NFL Draft picks, they will probably have to trade back in April.