Bills Draft 'Daron Payne 2.0' in Mazi Smith of Michigan in NFL Mock

The latest rookie forecast from The Athletic has the Buffalo Bills going with Michigan interior defender Mazi Smith.

University of Michigan defensive tackle Mazi Smith dons a different shade of blue in the newest mock draft from The Athletic, slotted to the Buffalo Bills with the hypothetical 27th overall pick.

Fresh off guiding the Wolverines to consecutive appearances in the College Football Playoff, Smith is lauded for his dangerous combination of strength and agility: he measures in at 6-foot-3 and 323 pounds while posting 22 reps on a 325-pound bench press and a 6.95 three-cone drill.

All this and more, Bruce Feldman writes, is why the Bills shore up their interior defensive line with Smith, who gains comparisons to Washington Commanders standout and newly minted Pro Bowler Daron Payne, rather than bolster the offensive line or find another aerial weapon. 

"Folks inside the Michigan program gush about his strength and agility," Feldman says. "One NFL coach I spoke with compared him to former Washington first-rounder Daron Payne, who made his first Pro Bowl in 2022. Smith’s vertical was a bit better than Payne’s, and the broad jump was the same, despite weighing almost 10 pounds more."

Smith, a redshirt junior, earned 88 tackles, including six for a loss, over three seasons in Ann Arbor. 

Feldman further endorses the fit between Smith and the Bills by referencing the fact that pretty much all of the Bills' primary interior defenders (i.e. DaQuan Jones, Ed Oliver, Tim Settle) are all due to hit free agency next season. 

"What stood out was that he has such a strong base and he uses his hands well," an opposing coach wrote in the mock draft analysis. "He was a problem for us. He’s fundamentally sound. Took his game to another level (in 2022). He’s just so hard to root out of there and so powerful. I thought he did what they asked him to do pretty well.”

Picking a defensive lineman with their debut pick would be nothing new for the modern Bills, as they brought in Oliver, A.J. Epenesa, and Gregory Rousseau with their top picks in 2019-21. Overall, each of their last four opening choices since Josh Allen's 2018 arrival has been used on defenders, the trend continuing when they took cornerback Kaiir Elam with the 23rd choice last season. 

The 2023 NFL Draft will be held on April 27-29 in Kansas City. 

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Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

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