It's the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. just know at there's also a members only group chat for fans of your team. Plus a lot more. You can check it out by tapping the everyday or club link in the show notes. The door has been open for Taryn Johnson to switch to safety. And is Brandon being really too aggressive in the draft? We're going to break that all down for you right now on locked on bills. You are Locked On Bills, your daily Buffalo Bills podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What's up, Bills Mafia? It's Joe Marino, author of the Herd Mentality Substack, co-host of the Locked On NFL Scouting Podcast, co-host of the NFL First Read Podcast, and I'm your host of Locked On Bills. Locked On Bills is a proud part of the Locked On Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network. I want to thank you for making Lockdown Bills your first listen every day and a big welcome and shout out to our everydayers. You know who you are. Those of you who never miss a single episode. I appreciate y'all being here very, very much. Well, folks, welcome in. Got a couple of things I want to break down for you on this episode, including Brandon Bean saying that he's too aggressive in the draft. And I want to really kind of dive into that thought. And I want to start with Taron Johnson. potentially making a switch to safety. Now, we'll have another episode of Lockdown Bills for you later today. It will cover free agent edge rushers, but there were a couple of topical things that I wanted to get into before that coming out of the combine yesterday. And so let's start with this Taron Johnson conversation. Brandon Bean was asked about a potential move for Taron Johnson to safety. And here's what he said. quote, nothing's off the table. We'll look at anything and everything as we make these decisions. Taron's a good football player, and so you never want to rule out anything if you think that's the best position for him after a couple weeks with Jim Leonard. He went on to say, we're trying to figure out every single piece and the value. He added, Taron's been great here. The guys played nickel, but it's also basically been half of a will linebacker. Just the way our defense was constructed, I can tell you a lot of love and respect for him, and we're still figuring out all the pieces. How they'll use him, how much he'll be on the field in Jim's defense, we've played him damn near 90%, so those are the conversations. How much does Jim foresee him being on the field for this defense, or is he going to have another linebacker in his place a little bit more depending on what personnel is out there. There's multiple players like that. We kind of got to figure out what is the fit going forward. All right. So the door is open. The door is completely open for Taron Johnson to transition from slot to safety. I have a lot of thoughts on this. First of all, I want to acknowledge the contract. Taron Johnson is not a player that the bills have an immediate path to get out of his deal. They could release him today. They'd free up 1.9 million in cap, but they'd also take a nine and a half million dollar debt cap hit. Not logical. Now they could release him after June 1st and they would free up 8.7 million in 2026 cap, but accumulate 2.7 million in dead cap this year and 6.7 next year. So it's a contract that is much more favorable to get out of after June 1st. And that takes me back to a comment that Bean made that really stands out. He said he's a good football player. And so you never want to rule anything out if you think that's the best position for him after a couple of weeks with Jim. reading between the lines i think about the ota process that'll happen in may and in june and i think that your opportunity to assess taryn johnson and figure out is this the right path And if not after June 1st you have a much more favorable opportunity to get out of the deal So that's a little bit of reading between the lines there for me. Now, as for the projection to safety, I'm not totally convinced it will work. I think it's a worthwhile idea. But in watching Taron Johnson through the years, he's never been a player that I felt was more comfortable as routes elongate down the field. I think he's better in kind of tighter spaces, playing forward, being leveraged, driving on the football, as opposed to playing with depth. When he has to carry routes, I felt like he gave up separation. And so now you want to start to play him in deeper zones in a position that he's really never done. It's not like he sometimes played safety for the Bills. He didn't. He was a slot corner. And like Brandon Bean said, a lot of times are really a linebacker. And you might say, well, maybe he can be more of a box safety. Well, I feel like that's where you want to play Cole Bishop. And I want to have a player next to Cole Bishop that compliments Cole Bishop. And I think the way you do that is by having a guy that can play in deeper zones. I'm not totally convinced Taron Johnson is going to be that guy. Plus, you have to remember, fitting the run, the angles are very different from depth than they are from the slot. And so I'm concerned about the transition. I'm not convinced it will work. I think it's a worthwhile idea to consider, but I don't think it's a slam dunk. Here's the other part of that. I don't think it's a slam dunk for him to play in the slot either. I think the last couple of years, you've seen the age on Taron Johnson. And I think that is somewhat of a consequence of how they've asked him to play. As a quasi linebacker, fitting the run, taking on blocks, being in the box quite a bit. So I think he, as a consequence of that, his decline may be accelerated. So this is about salvaging Taron Johnson. How do we get something out of this? How do we maximize this contract that we're in? And I think considering him at safety makes some sense. If it doesn't work, you have a more favorable out of the contract after June 1st. But ultimately, you're concerned about him in the slot anyways. So tinker with it. Figure out if there's a path forward. And if not, you have that opportunity after June 1st to get out of the deal. So that's where I'm at on this Taron Johnson conversation. It's very interesting that the door is open, but obviously there's a lot to sort out, and I'd love for it to work. I'd love for it to work, whether that's at slot or safety. But obviously there's some projection involved there, and hopefully they can get some clarity throughout the OTA process on what this guy can actually bring to your football team moving forward. All right, coming up next, Brandon Bean, self-proclaimed too aggressive in the draft. I have a lot of thoughts on that. I want to look at the moves that he's made to be aggressive in the draft, how that's worked, and a big central thought that I want to deliver on the idea of trading up. So we'll do that here next. Folks, be sure to stick with me. Welcome to the five-hour energy flavor draft with 18 different flavors to choose from, including new options like Confetti Craze, Fruity Rainbow, or Cotton Candy. There's something for everyone. I have my board set. The flavors are ready, and I've got the number one pick here for the five-hour energy draft, and my favorite is berry. 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And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at Indeed Indeed.com slash podcast. Just go to Indeed.com slash podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire. This is a job for Indeed-sponsored jobs. All right, folks, welcome back. Brandon Bean said something during his Combine interview that I want to dive into a little bit more here right now. and he said, quote, one of my downfalls is I'm too aggressive. One of my downfalls in the draft is that I'm too aggressive. Talked about how he needs to have people around him to keep him in check and ask him the hard questions like, hey, you really want to do this? You really want to give up that? And so Brandon Bean has been fairly aggressive in the draft. He's traded up several times, and I want to highlight those trades for you so you can consider whether or not they've been good ideas. So his first draft in 2018, he traded up to number seven overall for Josh Allen. He gave up picks 12, 53, and 56 to get to number seven and got Josh Allen. We love that. The same draft, the same round he traded up. He traded up to number 16, got Tremaine Edmonds. He also picked up pick 154. got that in exchange for picks 22 and 65 from the Ravens. So they go from 22 to 16. They give up 65. They also get 154, and they get Tremaine Evans. That's a pretty good trade, right? So 2018, a couple of good trades up, right? 2019, the Bills trade up from 40 to 38 with the Raiders. So they go from 40 to 38, and they move up two spots. They give a pick 158 and they get Cody Ford. Not so good. In the same draft, they traded up from 112 to 96 with the commanders. They give up 131 to move up from 112 to 96, and they get tight end Dawson Knox. So that's a pretty good trade, right? Dawson Knox has been a really good player for the Bills. Maybe not so much on that Cody Ford trade. They did not trade up in 2020 or 2021, but he got back to it in 2022. trading up from 25 he went to 23 so he moved up two spots in the first round gave up 130 and got cornerback kair elam don't like that don't like that one at all and then later in the draft brandon bean traded up from 168 to 148 he gave up 203 and got wide receiver kalil shakir that's a good move you move up 20 spots you give a pick 203 and you get kalil Shakira. That one worked out. So there's another success story. Then you go to 2023. Brandon Bean moved up from 27 to 25. So just two spots, gave up pick 130 and got tight end Dalton Kincaid. I really liked Dalton Kincaid. Just needs to stay healthy. I think the jury's still out and cost you a pick 130. That's not a ton. It's a fourth round pick. We'll see where that goes. and then this past year in 2025 he traded up twice he went from 56 to 41 and got tj sanders and that was a pretty involved deal it was 41 72 and 240 for 56 62 and 109 we got a lot to learn about tj sanders a lot and then the other one was deon walker trading up from 132 to 109 and they gave up 169 for deon walker so far that looks great so you had some some really good ones You moved up for Josh Allen You moved up for Kilo Shakir Tremaine Edmonds Dawson Knox You have some bad ones too. Kyer Elam, Cody Ford. We'll see what happens with TJ Sanders. We'll see what happens with kind of the overall with Dalton Kincaid. So it's been a mixed bag with a few black eyes along the way. I don't really love trading up. I really don't, especially for a non-quarterback. I think if you need a quarterback, you should do whatever it takes to get one if you really like them. But trading up for other positions is challenging for me. And I absolutely love this quote from Eric DaCosta, who's the general manager of the Ravens. He said this last year, and I think this perfectly illustrates my position on trading up. This is what Eric DaCosta quote. Stick with me here. Teams simply don't do any better drafting than anyone else. They all do about the same. Some believe the draft is inherently sort of a luck-driven process. I don't fully believe that. But there is an element of luck involved. So if you accept that premise, then you're trading up for a player that you think is better than anybody else. Most of the time, other teams are not going to draft that player that player is probably going to fall to you and there's no guarantee that player is going to be better all things being equal the fact that no one really knows the only rational approach is to get more at bats it's to pick more he went on to say that we've seen over the last five years that everyone seems to be drafting the same types of players. That's what the draft has become. So for me, the idea of having more picks means I have more chances of getting more value. I think it's that simple. You can't have smartest guy in the room syndrome. You can't just believe that you've got to figure it out better than anyone else. And you're willing to give away more chances to get players to get one. i believe that i want as many at bats as possible and i don't care about conversations about rostering rookies and if you have space figure it out great problem to have we have lots of good young players and we're not sure how to roster them all great sign me up for that but this idea that you're going to sacrifice chances to hit on picks because you believe one guy is the answer is not being really honest about the reality of the draft process. So I don't think you want to go crazy and be overly critical of modest moves to go make sure you get somebody that you like. But I believe what Eric DaCosta said, give yourself as many chances. The only rational approach is to get more at-bats. So back to the idea, is Brandon being too aggressive? I mean, he's made some modest moves up. He hasn't gone super crazy outside of maybe the Josh Allen trade up, but my goodness, that looks amazing. You give up 12, 53 and 56 for Josh Allen every single time. But I do think it is something to be careful about. Don't have smartest guy in the room syndrome. Give yourself as many opportunities to be right, because that's how you find a Matt Milano, a Christian Benford, a Khalil Shakir. You want to have those opportunities to get those types of players and not sell out for Kyer Elam or Dalton Kincaid or Cody Ford. so there you have it I want to share some thoughts on what Brandon Bean said about Taron Johnson and the door being open for him to move to safety and then his own self-proclamation that he's too aggressive during the draft I hope that he'll embrace a different idea because I don't I just don't think it's smart to live in that world where you're giving up opportunities to get opportunities to hit on picks for one guy so there you have it All right, folks, thanks for being here. We'll be back later on to discuss free agent edge rusher options. I hope you'll come back for that. Make sure you're subscribed. We have a lot of content coming on the feed. A couple podcasts per day. We got Bill's squad a couple times a week. The best way to make sure you don't miss it is to subscribe. And I'd love it if you took a second to rate, review, and share the podcast. Have a great rest of your day. Go Bills. And I look forward to catching up with you again real soon.
