While the crowd at Radio City Music Hall was hooting with surprise over Blake Bortles going to the Jacksonville Jaguars with the third-overall pick, Buffalo Bills general manager Doug Whaley was putting the finishing touches on the gutsiest move of the first round.
The Bills coveted Clemson wide receiver Sammy Watkins. Whaley offered the Cleveland Browns an offer they couldn't refuse: The No. 9 overall pick plus a first- and fourth-round picks in 2015 for the right to move up five spots.
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The Billsgot their man, giving the team a truly elite wide receiver ... if Watkins pans out. It's a high risk/high reward move Whaley felt the organization needed to make.
"We've got to win," Whaley told Peter King of TheMMQB.com. "We've got to win now. Fourteen years of not making the playoffs. Fourteen years. The people here deserve so much more. We need to give them more. We need to give them a winning team. We need to do it for the people of this region, and we need to do it for Mr. Wilson.
"I understand how big the deal is. I'm a competitor. I like our odds. I like our chances. The information we had made the decision for us. The player made the decision. I think I made the best decision for the Buffalo Bills. I can live with that, however it turns out."
The logic is both admirable and understandable -- and Whaley clearly is aware of the stakes. The Bills have been trapped in a funk for too long. Whaley is betting on Watkins being the type of star who can change everything.
The latest "Around The League Podcast" provides instant reaction to all the wild happenings in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft.
