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On today's episode, we are continuing our work in building the Buffalo Bills 2026 NFL Draft Board, and it's our third conversation on Edge Rushers. It will be our last conversation on Edge Rushers as I'll discuss five more players, and then I'll give you my rankings for the Bills. And, you know, it might stack a little bit different than maybe the other rankings that you're going to see out there, but this is the way that I see it. So it's been fun to kind of work through these Edge Rushers. There's a lot of depth to this group, and that obviously suits the Bills well. Whether there's a need and the Bills don't have that second round pick. And so whether they want to attack it in the first round, maybe wait to the third round, maybe wait till day three. I think they'll be able to find an answer that they like. But based on the current circumstances, you can certainly convince yourself into any one of those possibilities in terms of round one, round three, day three, as where the Bills should invest here, because they do have Bradley Chubb, who of course they brought in in free agency. There's Greg Russo, who's going to make a bit of a transition to that on the ball outside linebacker role. Michael Hoyt looked awesome last year for seven quarters, but he's coming off in Achilles' injury, and then it's Javon Solomon and Andre James. And so whether it's adding some players that can provide different types of skill sets, guys that can be versatile and be a rush outside linebacker, but also maybe play some five technique, the Bills have room to add here. And I think they will at some point, it's just a matter of who and when. So we'll talk about five more options right now. And we'll start with somebody that I really, really enjoyed scouting and evaluating. And that is Malachi Lawrence out of UCF. Six foot four, 253 pounds, 33 and five eighths on the arm length. Nine and a quarter inch hands, a relative athleticism score of a 9.95 and a 10 is the highest you can get. So that's a heck of a score. He's played 1309 college snaps, 28 career tackles for loss, 20 career sacks, a 2025 pass rush win rate of 19.2%. A 2025 run stuff percentage of 4.2%. He's 22 in terms, 23 in July. So why should the Bills consider drafting Malachi Lawrence out of UCF? Well, size, length. I really like the combination here. We've talked about the Cassius Howells and the Armace and Thomas's and those guys have that burst and bend factor. They just don't have length. Well, guess what? Malachi Lawrence has length and he's got more mass than those guys as well. So you get 253 pounds with nearly 34 inch arms. And so we have the length component that we're looking for in this type of speedy, bursty, bendy guy. And you do get those elements. You get an explosive, explosive first step and that get off his ability to get speed up the arc is really, really impressive. But I also love the flexibility that he pairs it with. He's a guy that can certainly tilt and flattening corner, right? So you're talking about getting around those edges and being able to turn and use your body to reduce and dip and get underneath the pads of that offensive lineman and be able to really turn and corner. He's got that ability and I love how deliberate he is with getting those toes pointed at the quarterback. And I think he's going to be a really high impact pass rusher at the next level simply because of burst, length, flexibility. And there's just an understanding of angles that I think he really gets. And I think the best sack artist truly do understand. Oh, by the way, he's got hand moves for sure. You see hand combos, you see counters, you see plenty in terms of variety and getting to counters and stringing together those moves. Got a lot of pop in his hands a little bit more than you're going to expect for a guy that's, you know, 64, 253 pounds. He does maximize his length. And so there's just a lot of different ways that he can win. He's not just a speed up the arc guy. He's not just a power guy. He's not just a one arm type guy. He's got all the different types of clubs in his bag, which makes him very appealing to me where, you know, we've talked about some of these other guys like an Armace and Thomas like a Cassius Howell. And I like those players, but if they don't win with speed up the arc, they don't really give you much. This guy can win in a variety of ways, which is important. There's a lot of different flavors to this guy and his pass rush repertoire. Oh, by the way, his motor is always cranked. This guy goes 100 miles an hour at all times. And so there is just a really, really appealing profile to me with Malachi Lawrence that I think is very attractive for the bills at 26 in terms of diversifying this group of pass rushers and adding a young piece that can really provide a lot of upside in terms of sack potential. Now, what concerns are there about projecting Malachi Lawrence out of UCF to the Buffalo Bills? Well, I'd say the number one thing for me is he can play tall. And what I mean by that is he's just not playing with consistent leverage. You know, low man wins. That's really a thing. If you ever played middle school football, they tell you that on day one. Well, guess what? It rings true in the National Football League where playing with leverage matters and he can play tall. And at 6-4, 253, he's not the smallest, but he's certainly not the biggest. And if you're not playing with consistently good leverage, it's going to be tough for you to be consistent in the NFL. I do think in terms of setting the edge against offensive tackles, that's a mixed bag. I don't think that he's a bad run defender. But when you ask him to set firm edges and squeeze down against 310, 315, 320 pound offensive tackles, that's going to yield pretty different results. Sometimes it looks good. There's other times where if his pads aren't low, he's going to get widened and not set as firm of edges. And I also say that he's not immune to some wider rushes where he can get too far up the field, get a little bit loopy with his rush. And even sometimes when defending the run, he can get a little bit too far up the field. And then, all right, now you've created lanes for running backs or you've created escape outlets for quarterbacks. And so he's got to tighten that up a little bit. But there's a lot to like about this football player. I was really impressed. I'm really intrigued. I'd really love for the Bills to pick him at number 26. And so he'll be, and we'll get to this at the end of the podcast where I'll give you my total rankings and grades for all the edge rushers we've discussed. He's going to be higher than a lot of those names like Cassius Howell, like Armace and Thomas. I think there's just a lot more to this player. And he is very, very intriguing to me, a first round grade, easy first round grade for me. All right, we got more players to discuss. We'll get to a key Messador out of Miami, Zion Young out of Missouri next. So folks, be sure to stick with me. It's tax time, but for a lot of us, the old way of doing taxes is a lot. Trying to book an appointment. That's not the most convenient sitting in a waiting room with a stack of papers, emailing back and forth and wondering if they really get your situation. But this year, you're getting a major upgrade into it. TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide. 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In the minute I've been talking to you, companies like yours, a 27 hires on Indeed. According to Indeed data worldwide. So if you're hiring, spend less time searching and more time interviewing candidates who check all your boxes with Indeed sponsored jobs. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at 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. Welcome back folks. Let's talk about Akeem Messador out of Miami. He's six foot three, 260 pounds, 32 and a half inch arms, 10 inch hands. He didn't do any athletic testing. I would guess he would test very well if he did based on the athlete you would watch on film. He's played a ton of college football, 2,337 career snaps, 52 and a half tackles for loss, 35 and a half sacks, a pass rush win rate in 2025 of 20.8%, a 2025 run stuff percentage of 4.9%. And yes, he's an older prospect. He's already 25 years old. He just turned 25 in April. So why should the bills consider drafting Akeem Messador out of Miami? Well, he's really fun to watch. I'll tell you that he's got burst off the ball and he's got that ability to really carry speed through turns. And so you see him get up the field and then he can get his toes pointed the quarterback and the way he carries speed through that turn is really impressive. I think he's a smart football player that has great vision to read the set of the offensive tackle and know how to attack. He does well to reduce angles and what I'm talking about are rush angles and whether that's using speed to shorten angles or using power to shorten angles. He's got both in his repertoire. He's got a very nuanced rush plan, violent hands, plenty of variety in terms of ways he can beat blocks. You could tell this guy was coached by Jason Taylor. You hear some guys have a coach like that and it doesn't really matter. You watch Akeem Messador play. You can tell that this guy is a very technical football player that has a lot of different ways to win in his back pocket that he knows how to deploy. Big-time motor, urgent football player, he's instinctive. I think he's a really powerful run defender and whether that's slashing gaps or setting firm edges, I think you get a lot here in Akeem Messador. So what concerns are there about forecasting him to the Buffalo Bills? Well, he's 25 years old already and that's not ideal. You want to get young players in the draft that you feel like can be decade players for you and you're probably not going to get that out of Akeem Messador. If you pick up the fifth year option on his contract and he's a first round pick, he's going to be 30 years old at the end of his first contract. He's just an older prospect. He had some injury stuff. The COVID year, there was a lot of opportunity here with this kind of more recent group of prospects to have longer college careers. He's had a heck of a long college career. I wish he was a more disciplined player on the back side. I mentioned that he plays with a hot motor and he's very urgent and that is awesome. But there are times where he doesn't necessarily stay home when he's supposed to stay home. And as an edge player, on the back side, you have to deal with boot counter reverse. And so sometimes he's so hot in pursuit that he loses those responsibilities and gets got from time to time. I do think he needs to maintain a better base so it doesn't get narrow on him and rob him of power and lead to contact balance issues. And then, you know, part of his story is that he is an older player and part of that is because he had some injuries to both feet, some ligaments, and he's had surgery, the same surgery on both of his feet. It was a couple of years ago, but, you know, obviously that's something to be mindful of. So I think of him as a late first, early second round. I take prospect. I'm a big fan of his game, but I am certainly aware of, you know, some of the downside of picking a key message or but a good football player that I think will be a good pro. And the good thing about him is, yes, he's 25, but I think he's coming in really mature, right? I talk about him being a very technical football player. And it's not like you're going to have to wait a long time for him to get to his ceiling. You know, I think he should be pretty close to it right away. All right, let's talk Zion Young out of Missouri. He's 6'6", 262 pounds, 33 and 3 eighths on the arm length, 9 and a half inch hands, a relative athleticism score of a 7.68. So pretty average when it comes to the athletics, athletic testing. 1693 career snaps, 28 and a half career tackles for loss, 11 and a half career sacks, a 2025 pass rush win rate of 17.4%, a 2025 run stuff percentage of 9.3%, which is very good. He's 22 years old and actually just turned 22 in March. So why should the bills consider drafting Zion Young out of Missouri? Well, he can help on every down. You know, this guy is a really, really good run defender and he's got that power component, that length component as a pass rusher. And so there's no specialization of the skill set here. He can give you something on every down. Power and length is the name of the game with Zion Young. And he's a really, really stout edge setter against the run. He could squeeze down gaps as a really hot motor. He's going to make a lot of plays just based on effort alone. And he's a guy that's regarded for his leadership, his work ethic, his energy. And so the football character here seems to be pretty strong. And I also like that, you know, while he does profile well to being a rush outside linebacker, if you wanted the guy that can also play some five tech reps as well, which I think is a very big need for the bills, Zion Young can do it. And so I'd love that versatility. I think of Greg Russo a little bit like that as well, where I think he's going to play primarily as an on the ball outside linebacker. But, you know, who's playing five tech for this bills team right now. I think Greg Russo has a chance to be good at that. And Zion Young would be another guy to add to that mix. Now, what concerns are there about forecasting Zion Young out of Missouri to the bills? Well, he's high-hipped in terms of just body composition, and he plays tall. And again, low man wins. And I think he struggles to be the low man and partly because of just the way he's built with those high hips. I don't think he's overly explosive. This is a power and length guy. And so if you want burst and bend, this is not going to be your type of player. Now, that doesn't mean you can't be a good football player. Power is more important than flexibility. I would argue when it comes to playing on the edge. And but if you want to diversify the rush, you know, the rush arsenal for the bills, I don't think you're doing that with a Zion Young. I do think he does battle through some tightness at the top of the arc so he can have a step up the arc on an offensive tackle. And he doesn't have that flexibility to flatten and turn and corner. And so he's going to have to play through angles with power and length more so than he's going to be able to play around them. He does have some red flags. He was arrested and charged on suspicion of DWI in December 2025. He also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor aggravated assault in 2023. And so those are things to be mindful of. And I just think that overall past rush ceiling is modest here. He's not going to be a sack artist. If you don't love Greg Russo, if you don't like John Franklin Myers, those types of players, I don't think Zion Young is going to be for you. If you appreciate those types of players, well, then you're going to like Zion Young. And I do think that he has to develop more of that past rush repertoire to really cash in on the playmaking potential here. So I think if a more of a as a day two grade, good, good football, player, I think he'll make a team happy. It's just, you know, I think you are signing up for some limitations that will impact his overall playmaking. All right, let's talk real mellow height out of Texas Tech. 6 3 239 pounds 32 and a quarter inch arms, nine and a half inch hands a relative athleticism score of an 8.83 played 1495 snaps in college 27 career tackles for loss 16 and a half. Career sacks a past rush win rate in 2025 of 21.8% a 2025 run stuff percentage of 7.1%. Another older prospect. He's 25 and actually just turned 25. Why should the bills consider drafting Romello height out of Texas Tech? Well, first and then he's got it. You're going to love his explosiveness. You're going to love the speed up the arc. You're going to love that ability to tilt flattening corner edges. He's got it burst and Ben. He's got it. So if this is the type of diversification of the past rush group that you're looking for, Romello height is another guy to add to the mixed. He charges hard off the ball. I think he's a really good slashing type player. And so whether or not you want to have him a shoot a gap and defend the run. If you want to get him involved in some stunts and some games up front, you're going to like that ability to slash and loop and fine entry points into the backfield. I also think he's a good coverage player. And so if part of what you want him to do is play in space a little and drop in coverage, I thought he was really, really fluid with his pedals working laterally, reading the backfield and just being very responsive with his own coverage drops. And so I think that makes him pretty appealing is just the overall inventory of what he can offer your front seven. So what concerns are there about forecasting Romello height out of Texas Tech to the Buffalo Bills? Well, the run defense is not overly impressive here. The edge setting, the gap squeezing, you know, that's not really going to be a big part of what he's going to offer. I do think he has modest contact balance and he can get bumped off course pretty easily. He's 239 pounds. Right. And so if hands get on him and he has in his track gets widened, well, you know, that's going to be trouble. He's an older prospect, right? 25 years old already. That's not something we love. And then just generally you wish he was bigger. You wish he had more mass. You wish he had more length. You wish he had more power. So there are missing parts of the profile here. But if you want burst and bend and some versatility to play in space, I think you can be a nice player for your front seven. But you are signing up for some level of limitations. I think of him as an as a fourth round type prospect. All right. Coming up next. One more edge defender to discuss and then we'll give you my rankings for the edge rushers in this class. So folks, be sure to stick with me. The NBA playoffs are here where every possession matters. Every matchup is magnified in every game can swing a series. And right now, Fandal is giving new customers a great way to get in on the action. 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So head to Fandal.com to get started. Fandal, play your game. All right. Welcome back, folks. We got one more prospect to discuss and then we will really kind of summarize this. I'll give you my final rankings and just some overall thoughts on maybe how the bill should attack improving edge rusher in the draft. Last player I want to discuss is Derek Moore out of Michigan. He's 6'4", 255 pounds, 33 and 3 eighths on the arm length, nine and an eighth inch hands. We don't have any athletic testing on him. 1,355 career snaps, 24 and a half career tackles for loss, 21 career sacks, a 20-25 pass rush win rate of 19.8%. A 20-25 run stuff percentage of 5.5%. He's 23 in terms, 24 in December. So why should the bills consider drafting Derek Moore out of Michigan? Well, he's explosive in twitchy. He's got firm hands and those punches that he can throw do a good job of creating some softer angles that he can play through. And I think he has really good finishing burst. I think he's got good wingspan that shows up as a tackler. I'm really impressed with his ability to get in the vicinity of a quarterback or get in the vicinity of a running back and get him down. Like his reach and ability to contort his frame to make tackles is really impressive. He's not like a big bodied guy, 255 pounds. He's not small, but he's not huge. And I really do love how he competes against the run despite, you know, like modest mass, you know, he's got a little bit more firmness at the point of attack than you're going to expect. I think he's a smart player. He's a quick processor. I think he has timely responses and looks pretty nuanced in what he's asked to do on the field. He understands the finer details. He's going to chip the tight ends. He's going to get his eyes in the right place whenever a guy down blocks, right? He's just got to write the right type of feel for playing the position. So what concerns are there about forecasting Derek Moore out of Michigan to the bills? Well, I think he's got just okay contact balance. There's times where he can play tall. His pads are high and then obviously robs him of power at the point of attack and it makes it difficult for him to be firm. It makes it difficult for him to convert speed to power. And so he's got to get the pads down. Now, I do wonder about the hand counters and stringing, stringing together past rush moves and, you know, can he get to those counters quick enough? You know, I think he's got to flesh that out and become a little bit more nuanced and technical with his rush plan. I do think he has modest flexibility for his overall poor profile. He's explosive. He's twitchy. But what type of bend does he have? I think it's probably just okay for a 255 pound edge. And then I do think that his motor can be inconsistent where you hear me praise a lot of these guys for going 100 miles an hour all the time and competing tough. I don't know that I would feel that way about Derek Moore. I'm not saying it's like a problem and he's loafing around on the field, but it doesn't certainly doesn't feel like every play is with the same type of energy. So to me, day three grade, probably later in the fourth round is where I would value Derek Moore. But, you know, if you're talking about some of these players earlier, you know, I think you look at guys like Derek Moore or Romelo height as fallback options on day four. It doesn't work out for you to pick one in the first or third round. All right, so let me give you my final rankings and grades here for the edge rusher class. And then we'll talk a little bit about maybe the way the bill should approach this. So my number one edge is Ruben Bain out of Miami. And I have first round grades on Ruben Bain, David Bailey out of Texas Tech and Malachi Lawrence out of Central Florida. I would say David Bailey is probably going to go in the top 10. I don't think he's that type of prospect. I think he's a fine first round prospect. But the top 10 to me is really rich. Malachi Lawrence also a firm first round grade. So three firm first round grades Ruben Ruben Bain, David Bailey, Malachi Lawrence. In terms of late first early second round, I have Keldrick Falk out of Auburn and then a key message door out of Miami. Second round grades Gabe Yacous or Yacous out of Illinois. He's a player that I like a ton. Zion Young out of Missouri, Cassius Howell out of Texas A&M, Armacen Thomas out of Oklahoma, TJ Parker out of Clemson. Those are all second round grades. I have a late two early three on just Sean Barham out of Michigan. I have third round grade out of Kearon Crawford out of Auburn and Joshua Joseph out of Tennessee. Fourth round grades on Romelo height and Derek Moore. I have a fourth, a late fourth early fifth on Danny Dennis Sutton out of Penn State. And then a fifth round grade out of on Alty Overton out of Alabama. And so I've done little mini profiles on all of those edge rushers over the last few days on this podcast. And so my big takeaway here with this edge class and how the bill should approach it is that the depth of the class is very appealing. Now, that doesn't mean you don't take one in the first round. Like if the bills pick Malachi Lawrence in the first round, I'd be really, really excited about that. But I also feel like the pressure might be off of that. Like if you feel like there's a receiver or there's an interior defensive lineman that really stands out to you and you want to prioritize that because you don't believe in the depth quite as much. That would make a lot of sense to me or a linebacker that you like because you don't like the depth as much. That would make a lot of sense to me. But I don't think you have to do it in the first round. I'd be totally fine with it and I especially love it if it was Malachi Lawrence. But I do think that the bills could take advantage of some of the depth here of this class. But again, I don't think I'd trade away from Malachi Lawrence. So that's something to definitely keep in mind. I do think part of the challenge in forecasting this edge rusher group is really it's your top three guys. It's Greg Russo making a transition and also a player that I think should play some five tech. It's Bradley Chubb in the injury history and trying to maximize his value. And that's Michael Hoyt coming off of an injury. And so in theory, like those three players should should play a lot of snaps for you and you'd love it. But I think there's questions about all three. And so getting younger and cheaper makes a lot of sense. And I think the bill should take advantage with one of their earlier picks. But I also feel like diversifying the group matters a ton. I've talked about a lot of the bursty bendy guys and I know that there's limitations with them. But I think the bills need that profile. And that's what I like about Malachi Lawrence so much is because he gives you burst and bend, but you're not making total concessions in the overall run defense profile. But he's not going to play five tech for you, even though he did a little bit at Central Florida. So I think you got to diversify your group. I think you have to figure out how this group all fits together, where your snaps are going to come from, who you can trust. So I think the bills need to make an investment here. I think they will relatively early. It could be the first one. It could be the third. It could be the fourth. I'd be curious to see how it plays out. But the good news is ultimately I think there should be attractive options at all three spots. And so I think the big challenge ahead for Brandon Bean, really with this overall draft, is knowing where the talent cliffs are going to be and knowing which positions to prioritize when to really fill out this roster and make sure that everyone has what they need, whether that's Joe Brady on offense or Jim Leonard on defense to maximize this football team in 2026 and beyond. All right, folks, there you have it. Edge rushers in the books. We got so much more to do. This draft is coming fast. And so we're going to spend some time talking about some mock drafts. We're going to talk about players. The bills have hosted for 30 visits. And we'll ultimately at some point reveal the board that I've been putting together that is bill specific. So we'll make sure we're ready for this draft as it is coming very, very quickly. So make sure you're subscribed. Don't miss anything. 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.
