ORCHARD PARK - Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane just couldn’t help himself.

The man loves to make draft day trades and Thursday night, he moved up two spots from No. 27 to Jacksonville’s No. 25 slot in the first round to select Utah tight end Dalton Kincaid, a somewhat surprising pick.

“Well, I lied. We traded up,” Beane said with a smile, recalling his comment from a couple weeks ago when he said if you were to make a bet in Las Vegas, the odds would be heavy that he’d try to trade back as opposed to trade up. “You guys probably knew I was going to do it anyway.”

To make the move, Beane traded away his fourth-round pick, No. 130 overall, so as of now the Bills have only four picks remaining in this draft. He felt it was a necessary price to pay because he believed the Cowboys at No. 26 were going to take Kincaid.

“We had a good feeling that Dallas would take him and we just really liked him and just felt he would be a great fit in our offense,” Beane said. “He is a tight end but he’s a receiving tight end. We think he’ll pair well with Dawson and give us another target in the middle of the field.”

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All along it was widely predicted that the Bills would add a wide receiver in the first round, but when the consensus top four went in succession from picks 20 to 23, that ended that plan. Beane admitted that he didn’t even have first-round grades on all four of Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Quentin Johnson, Zay Flowers and Jordan Addison, though he stopped short on revealing how many he did grade as first rounders.

He had Kincaid as the No. 1 tight end in the class, ahead of Georgia’s Darnell Washington and Notre Dame’s Michael Mayer, and Kincaid was indeed the first tight end off the board.

“It’s awesome,” Kincaid said of joining the Bills. “Trading up to get me goes to show that they wanted me that much more. So definitely just going to go in and be the best rookie I can and just do whatever I can to help the team. Josh Allen’s one of the best quarterbacks in the league, Dawson Knox is just right up there with the tight ends as well, so it’s going to be awesome to just learn from him and learn from Josh.”

Kincaid, a 6-foot-3, 246-pounder, was often a dominant player at Utah. He caught 175 passes for 2,623 yards and 35 touchdowns in 55 career games split between the University of San Diego and Utah. In one game against USC last October he caught 16 passes for 234 yards and a touchdown.

Picking Kincaid is certainly an indication that coach Sean McDermott has asked offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey to incorporate more two-tight end sets, but perhaps not for the reason you might think.

Yes, two tight ends on the field could help the run game, but Beane sees Kincaid as more of a pass catcher than blocker. By having one tight end attacked to the formation and the other in the slot, it lessens the need for an every-down slot receiver.

“When him and Dawson are in the game, you’re in 12 (two-tight end personnel), but it’s quasi like 11 (three wides),” Beane said. “It’s not like he’s your standard, wide tight end. Generally when you’re in 12, if you’ve got two Y tight ends you’re gonna get base defense. When he’s in the game, we’re going to get nickel as if we’re in 11. So it’s just a different style player. He’s more of a receiver. We’re not going to be having him block a lot of six-techs.”

So, rather than someone like Deonte Harty or Khalil Shakir taking the bulk of the snaps as slot receivers, Kincaid and Knox will get reps in that role.

Dane Brugler, draft analyst for The Athletic, wrote of Kincaid in his draft guide, “Overall, Kincaid is still developing his play strength and consistency as a blocker, but he is an above-average pass catcher with the burst, body control and ball skills to be a weapon in the slot. He projects as a playmaking ‘move’ tight end in the NFL.”

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Daniel Jeremiah of NFL Network loved Kincaid.

“I don’t know if I’m the captain of the fan club, but I know I’m in the running,” he said. “He entered the process as my ninth overall player, had him as a top tight end. I think he is a special, special talent. He had the back (injury), so he couldn’t work out in the spring. I think if he had been able to work out, I think he would have cemented himself as a top 15 pick. He is a stud. He is awesome.

“Off the line he is awesome at the top of his routes. He can separate, he has great hands. He is competitive after the catch. He can make you miss. I think he is one of the best players in the draft, and everything I was told physically from teams, he came out of that fine.”

Beane admitted that he was starting to seriously consider trading down from 27 before the Kincaid scenario played out.

“If you asked me five picks before we picked, I still would have told you we’re gonna trade down,” he said. “I thought he was gonna get taken. I called the Giants and they talked about it and then they let me know they were going to trade up. So as soon as I heard that I called Jacksonville and right away they weren’t sure and they waited ‘til they got on the clock, talked it through and got it done.”

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: Buffalo Bills trade up to pick Dalton Kincaid in 1st round of NFL Draft