ORCHARD PARK - Brandon Beane waited and waited and waited, and he couldn’t wait anymore.

So rather than hang tight at No. 25 in the first round of the NFL Draft, he switched places with the Ravens at 23 and also sent Baltimore the Bills’ fourth-round pick at No. 130 so that he could select University of Florida cornerback Kaiir Elam.

“We had had a good grade on Kaiir and we were down to one player in the first round on our board, and so at that point, it just made sense,” Beane said of making the trade. “Not sure what those teams would have taken, but there was a lot of trade action going on, too, so you don’t have to look at just what they might take, you got to look at the teams behind them. So it just felt like it was within striking distance.”

The move, and the pick, made perfect sense because cornerback was without question the one obvious need the Bills had on what is already a strong roster and Beane made light of the constant barrage he’d been absorbing on the subject.

Draft tracker: Round-by-round selections and analysis

With Levi Wallace gone to the Steelers, and Tre’Davious White’s injury rehab making him an uncertainty at the start of the season, the Bills had to fortify at such an important position in today’s NFL.

Dane Jackson might end up being fine as a starter, and if White is back in time, great. But Buffalo has very tenuous depth with Cam Lewis, Siran Neal, Nick McCloud, Tim Harris, Olajiah Griffin.

“Obviously I’ve been hearing it loud and clear - we don’t have a corner - from every single one of you, neighbors, kids, everyone, so we’ll all sleep good tonight that we added a corner,” Beane said with a smile.

Elam was thrilled to be picked by the Bills because he really enjoyed his time at the facility a few weeks ago when he came on an official top 30 visit.

“When I went to my visit in Buffalo, I don’t know what it was, I just felt special,” Elam said. “I’m super excited. I told them to put the playbook on the plane so I can get ready to contribute to the team. I want to get started right away.”

Once the Chiefs traded places with the Patriots to take Washington cornerback Trent McDuffie at No. 21, Beane sensed a potential run at the position and he knew he had to act.

“We were definitely talking to teams in that area, but we were following the board and we finally found a team where it made sense for them to take what we were offering,” Beane said.

As it turned out, though, Elam was the fourth and last corner taken.

Interestingly, Joe Schoen, Beane’s former assistant GM who is now running the show for the Giants along with coach Brian Daboll, told New York reporters that he had the parameters worked out for a trade involving the No. 7 overall pick.

He said the team that was interested, one that was interested in picking a cornerback, backed out. Perhaps that team was the Bills hoping to go way up to pick either LSU’s Derek Stingley Jr. or Cincinnati’s Sauce Gardner.

Beane flatly denied Buffalo was the team, but it was moot anyway because because Stingley went to the Texans at No. 3 and Gardner was taken by the Jets at No. 4. The Giants wound up staying put and picked Alabama offensive tackle Evan Neal.

“We didn’t talk to anyone (about a trade) above 20,” Beane said.

Any hopes the Bills harbored of taking one of the top receivers evaporated pretty quickly in the 9 p.m. hour when a run began that saw four go in a span of five picks.

USC’s Drake London went to the Falcons at No. 8, the Jets took Garrett Wilson of Ohio State at No. 10 and then two teams traded up to get their guys.

The Saints swapped with the Commanders at No. 11 to get Ohio State’s Chris Olave, and the Lions went all the way from No. 32 to No. 12 in a deal with the division rival Vikings to pick Jameson Williams of Alabama, a player some draft analysts thought might slide into Buffalo’s range because of his knee injury.

It was the first time in draft history that four wideouts were taken in the first 12 picks, and it soon became six in the first 18 picks. Two other player some thought would have been a fit for the Bills, Penn State’s Jahan Dotson and Arkansas’ Treylon Burks went to the Commanders at No. 16 and the Titans at No. 18, respectively.

The Bills were hoping that one or two of the quarterbacks would get taken in the top half of the round, perhaps pushing some of those receivers down the board. That did not happen which shouldn’t have been a surprise because this has always been considered one of the weakest quarterback classes ever.

By the time the Steelers finally picked Kenny Pickett of Pitt at No. 20, it was the latest a QB had been taken since the 49ers took Jim Druckenmiller at No. 26 back in 1997.

That year, you might remember, the Bills certainly needed a quarterback after Jim Kelly had just retired, but unfortunately for GM John Butler and coach Marv Levy, that was an awful year for the position.

In the end, 11 QBs were picked, and the best of the bunch wound up being Jake Plummer. The Bills took running back Antowain Smith at No. 23.

“We were hoping more quarterbacks would go, and finally one went,” Beane said.

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana.

Complete Bills Draft Coverage

Draft tracker: Round-by-round selections and analysis

Round 1: Bills trade up to take Florida cornerback Kaiir Elam to fill biggest need

Kaiir Elam: 3 things to know about Bills No. 23 overall pick

Round 2: Bills trade down and select RB James Cook for more offensive firepower

James Cook: 3 things to know about Buffalo Bills second-round pick

Round 3: Bills address linebacker depth in third round with Baylor's Terrel Bernard

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Kaiir Elam: Buffalo Bills trade up for Florida cornerback in NFL Draft