Mel Kiper’s first 2024 NFL mock draft should excite Bills Mafia

We’re on to the 2024 NFL Draft. Well, at least with this article. The Buffalo Bills have entered their offseason program, which includes a very healthy dose of preparation for April’s draft.

The man who lives to mock others, Mel Kiper Jr., released his first 2024 NFL Mock Draft this past week. In it, he made a pick for One Bills Drive that should delight plenty of Bills Mafia — those desperately hoping for more offensive production.

Kiper informs that he “made a late change with this pick after (he) watched Josh Allen average 4.8 yards per attempt in the home loss to the Chiefs.”

Enter: Adonai Mitchell, WR (Texas).

So what can we learn about Mitchell at this stage? He’s a talented wide receiver who’s known to have fantastic hands. Were he to be drafted by One Bills Drive, he’d join Justin Shorter to form a pair of the tallest players in the wide receiver room. But size isn’t the only noteworthy aspect to Mitchell’s game.

As Kiper notes:

“Mitchell broke out after transferring from Georgia, catching 55 passes for 845 yards and 11 scores for the Longhorns in 2023. He thrived on crossing routes, using his size and quickness to get separation from defenders.”

Mitchell sounds like just the sort of receiver Buffalo could use — considering their lack of size at the position this past season. Too often, the Bills’ wide receivers seemed to lack the ability to separate in traffic, which meant far too many contested balls were falling incomplete or worse.

With the likelihood that wide receiver Gabe Davis is headed for a windfall in free agency, the Bills have an urgent need at wide receiver. That may also be true even if Davis returns to Orchard Park, NY. Down the stretch of the 2023 NFL season Stefon Diggs failed to separate himself on the field and from the pack, either taken out of games by teams’ cornerbacks or simply unable to hang on to the football. It was a down season, the kind which Bills Mafia hopes is just a blip on Diggs’ illustrious resume. While he put up great numbers, they paled in comparison to recent seasons, and he’s not getting any younger.

The most important thing general manager Brandon Beane can do is continue adding talent around quarterback Josh Allen. For as well as he played this past season, too often he was left out to dry by pass catchers not named Khalil Shakir and Dalton Kincaid. During Allen’s career, he has only ever thrown to one wide receiver drafted in the first round: Kelvin Benjamin.

With Shakir breaking out in his second season, it appears as though the Bills are set at slot receiver. They must add an outside complement to Diggs — someone who can learn from him in a WR2 role and perhaps eventually take over as the team’s top receiver. There’s talk that Diggs could find himself sliding down the depth chart to WR2 or even working mostly out of the slot. Short of a near-impossible move in free agency to land one of the top available names, Diggs’ spot at WR1 should be safe for at least the 2024 NFL season.

We’ll have to wait until the NFL Scouting Combine to learn more about the athletic traits that Adonai Mitchell brings to the table as a potential first-round target of the Bills. What do you think, Bills Mafia — does Kiper’s selection of Mitchell seem like a wise move for the Buffalo Bills?