We won’t ever know because Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane will never tell us whether or not he coveted Iowa middle linebacker Jack Campbell in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft.

Of course, if he did or didn’t became a moot point when the Detroit Lions picked him No. 18 overall Thursday night, a bit higher than most draft analysts believed he’d go. However, I sure would have loved to see what Beane would have done if Campbell made it to Buffalo’s 27th slot.

Now that Tremaine Edmunds is gone, the need for a middle linebacker is glaring and because of that, I thought if there was one player who was the perfect pick for the Bills, it was Campbell.

Sign up for the Bills Blast newsletter Delivered straight to your inbox, additional Bills analysis, insight, stats, quotes and team history from Sal Maiorana

It wasn’t the two other highly-regarded linebackers (at least by draft analysts) – Arkansas’ Drew Sanders, who didn’t get picked until No. 67 in the third round by the Broncos, or Clemson’s Trenton Simpson, who went No. 86 to the Ravens.

Campbell was the guy, a 6-foot-4, 249-pounder (very close to Edmunds’ unique size for the position) who probably would have been plug-and-play in Week 1 next to Matt Milano. Now, he’ll be that player for the Lions.

Again, maybe Beane and his staff disagreed. Maybe Campbell was never in their plans and they were always hoping to pick tight end Dalton Kincaid of Utah, even if it meant trading up to No. 25 to do so, which is what they ultimately did.

But I’m not buying that. In fact, with Campbell gone, if not for the rapid wide receiver run that took place when Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Quintin Johnson, Zay Flowers and Jordan Addison went at picks 20 through 23, I think Beane would have taken one of them. Once that option also wilted away, that’s when he set his sights on Kincaid.

Look, I’m never going to pass definitive judgment on draft picks, or the viability of a draft class, for two years. It’s just not fair to do that to the team, or the player, until they’ve had a legitimate chance to find their niche within the team.

However, I can certainly conjure some early impressions on this class, based solely on how I see the players fitting in to what the Bills are doing and what they’ll be able to contribute right away.

Dalton Kincaid needs to be a true difference maker

If he’s not, this is not going to be a good pick because in the first round, you have to draft difference makers regardless of position. That’s just the reality of the beast.

The way Beane explained this pick is that the Bills view the 6-foot-4, 246-pounder not as a traditional inline tight end but as a player who will be detached either in the slot or out wide, in essence as a third wide receiver.

The Bills aren’t going to take snaps away from Dawson Knox. who they just gave a hefty four-year contract extension to, so this signals a change in offensive philosophy for the Bills. They’ve been a predominant three-wide receiver team with Stefon Diggs, Gabe Davis and a slot receiver (Cole Beasley or Isaiah McKenzie, both quick, smallish players) joined by Knox and a running back.

But it seems that Kincaid will be the slot receiver, and while I’m not comparing him to Travis Kelce of the Chiefs or George Kittle of the 49ers, I think that’s what the Bills want from him. A consistent, big-bodied target for Josh Allen over the middle and down the field on intermediate routes.

Knox has been that player in flashes but has never been a consistent threat teams have to worry about. If Kincaid provides that, you may see Knox used more in the traditional tight end role as someone in the pattern frequently, but also kept in to block for both the pass and run.

If this is the case, it would indicate that free agent signees Deonte Harty and Trent Sherfield and second-year player Khalil Shakir will be depth pieces for offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey. I’m not sure Harty, in particular, will be too thrilled with that because when he first signed, it seemed like he was going to be the slot replacement for McKenzie.

O’Cyrus Torrence is a departure in skill set

The Bills have favored slightly smaller but more athletic interior offensive linemen the past few years. Center Mitch Morse weighs 305 pounds, guard Ryan Bates is 302, and newly signed Connor McGovern (318) and David Edwards (308) fall into that category, too.

Torrence is now the outlier. He’s a 330-pounder, which would make him the second-heaviest player on the team behind defensive lineman Jordan Phillips (341). He’s a mauler who doesn’t move particularly well out in space, but will get defenders out of the way in the run game, and keep pass rushers away from Allen.

The Bills need strength and bulk at guard because of the rugged defensive lines they face in the AFC East. Over the past couple years they’ve had no one capable of neutralizing defensive tackles Quinnen Williams of the Jets, Christian Wilkins of the Dolphins and the Patriots’ Christian Barmore.

It will be interesting to see what happens at guard. The biggest money free agent signing the Bills made was McGovern to play left guard, and they matched an offer sheet last year to retain Bates as a restricted free agent. Is Torrence capable of starting over either? I certainly think he could be a better option than Bates.

What you can definitely see as a possibility is the Bills moving on from Morse after 2023. They would save $8.5 million, then move Bates to center, opening the guard spots for McGovern and Torrence.

Dorian Williams pick doesn’t make much sense

I was really puzzled by the selection of the 228-pound linebacker from Tulane in the third round because I don’t really see what the point of it was.

Beane admitted Williams is an outside linebacker, so he’s not going to be in line to compete for Edmunds’ job. So, with a third-round pick, the Bills are getting Matt Milano’s backup and a player who will look to contribute on special teams. To me, that’s not what third-round picks should be.

You should be picking players who can help right away as rookies, and not just on special teams. It didn’t seem like there were any receivers worthwhile on the board, but what about a safety? Alabama’s Jordan Battle went four picks later to the Bengals.

The contracts of Micah Hyde and Taylor Rapp expire after 2023, and the Bills could save money if they get out of the final year of Jordan Poyer’s contract in 2024. Battle might not have helped much in 2023, but he could have been positioned to become a starter in 2024. And he certainly would have contributed at least as much as Williams will this season.

This is two years in a row the Bills have spent a third-round pick on a linebacker – Terrel Bernard in 2022 – who doesn’t look like anything more than a core special teamer.

One thing that might happen: Perhaps the Bills are looking at the free agent market as a way to fill the middle linebacker spot. It’s not a great shopping list, but as a one-year stopgap you could do worse than Zach Cunningham, Myles Jack or Cory Littleton. None are at Edmunds’ level, but they’re all better than Bernard, Tyrel Doson and A.J. Klein.

After all the trades, Day 3 picks will have minimal impact

Beane spent Saturday afternoon shuffling picks in and out of the building. He started the day by trading down 13 spots in the fifth round and picking wide receiver Justin Shorter from Florida. That deal with the Commanders netted a sixth-round pick.

Shorter was a big-time high school recruit who actually was rated ahead of current NFL stars Ja’Marr Chase, Amon-Ra St. Brown, and Jaylen Waddle. He went to Penn State but never found his niche so he transferred to Florida and played three years for the Gators.

At 6-foot-4 and 229 pounds, Shorter is now the biggest receiver on the Bills roster. He caught 110 passes for 1,552 yards and eight touchdowns across his five college seasons.

Then the real folly began. Beane made two more trades, which ultimately knocked them out of the sixth round completely and gave them two in the seventh, plus they received two sixth-round picks in 2024.

With the first seventh-rounder, they selected Mississippi guard Nick Broeker, a 6-foot-4, 305-pounder who made 36 career starts split between left tackle and left guard. He projects as a guard for Buffalo, and if he makes the team, it will almost certainly be on the practice squad.

Same thing for the second seventh-rounder, cornerback Alex Austin, a 6-foot-1, 195-pounder from Oregon State. He finished his four-year career with 140 tackles and four interceptions.

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana.To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which will come out every Friday during the offseason, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills draft picks 2023 analysis: How the new players fit with the team