President of football operations/general manager Brandon Beane added 10 draft picks to the Buffalo Bills’ roster over the weekend. And while there are places on the final 53-man roster and practice squad available for the edge rusher, wide receiver, linebacker, defensive tackle, guard, safety, offensive tackle, defensive tackle, and two cornerbacks the Bills selected, roster construction season doesn’t end after pick #257. Undrafted free agency is well underway and will add to the 90-man roster the Bills will take into the spring and summer, but the second way of unrestricted free agency kicked off (unofficially) Monday at 4 p.m. EDT.
That time marked the beginning of the period where teams can sign unrestricted free agents without there being impact on the compensatory pick formula for their teams for next offseason. It also coincides with the desires of veterans and their agents as well; they can wait to see what positions a team selects with premium draft picks before deciding to sign on the dotted line in the hopes of not getting usurped on the depth chart before playing a snap for their new team.
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The Bills addressed a lot of their perceived roster needs during the 2026 NFL Draft, but there are a few names out there that, if signed, would represent reinforcements or even upgrades at positions of lesser strength for the team:
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DJ Reader – Defensive Tackle
Reader has been heavily linked to the New York Giants and visited them prior to the draft, but is worth at least a minor note here. Brandon Beane told WGR550 on Monday morning that if the team lined up to play today, second-year DT Deone Walker, who flashed in spurts last season, would start at the nose for the team. It should be noted that Beane has consistently elected to not pursue a traditional nose tackle during the draft and new defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard not only saw a tackle utilized in the middle of his Denver Broncos defensive line who was listed at 305 pounds on the team website, but also had a 310 pound defensive tackle in Keanu Benton playing over the center during his Wisconsin days. These items in combination make a Reader addition highly unlikely, and he hasn’t provided the same level of juice to a defense as he did between 2020 and 2023 but has consistently demonstrated ability to impact a team’s front seven in an area where the Bills are weak: rush defense.
Another player who makes a lot of sense for a team that’s not domiciled in Western New York, Okereke may end up in Nashville as a member of the Tennessee Titans. The Bills, however, only utilized a fourth round pick on TCU’s Kaleb Elarms-Orr during the draft and saw Matt Milano and Shaq Thompson both depart while ostensibly having Elarms-Orr competing with Dorian Williams for the second inside linebacker position next to veteran and 2025 re-signee Terrel Bernard. In the event they’d prefer not to hope that Williams and/or Elarms-Orr are ready for the challenge of starting in the NFL, they may choose to bring in a veteran backstop like Okereke. Adding the previously-mentioned Thompson to the linebacker mix last year proved to be a high-level move by Brandon Beane, as the former Carolina Panther ended up needing to play a notable snap load and was effective in the defensive run by former defensive coordinator Bobby Babich and previous head coach Sean McDermott.
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Martin Emerson – Cornerback
Brandon Beane said in his post-draft press conference that his number one need on the team coming into the weekend was cornerback. He drafted two of them, using a second-round pick on Davison Igbinosun and a seventh rounder on Toriano Pride Jr. But given the scar tissue clearly present after the team was forced to play the backups to the backups in meaningful games over the last few years, he may want to consider bringing it a veteran backstop. Emerson was viewed as an ascending player for the Cleveland Browns before a particularly ill-timed 2025 Achilles tear wiped out the final year of his rookie contract. The injury occurred during training camp, though, and although he may not be at full strength until 2027, it may provide an opportunity for the cash-strapped Bills to get a younger veteran with heavy man coverage experience to come in and compete for that outside cornerback role with “IGB” behind penciled in starters Maxwell Hairston and Christian Benford.
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I wouldn’t anticipate the Bills making some sort of splash by signing a name like wide receiver Tyreek Hill or Marshon Lattimore, but post-draft, the opportunities are back on the table for the team to make additions to the team now that agents are picking up the phone.
…and that’s the way the cookie crumbles. I’m Bruce Nolan with Buffalo Rumblings. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @BruceExclusive and look for new episodes of “The Bruce Exclusive” every Thursday on the Rumblings Cast Network — see more in my LinkTree!
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