There’s still another pick to come, but one trend that’s become clear, concerning the Buffalo Bills 2009 draft, is that they’re not afraid to draft a player at one position and move him to another.

Among those first seven picks, the Bills are looking at position switches for at least three of them.  First rounder Eric Wood played center at Louisville, but the Bills are immediately talking about him as a guard.  The Bills first second round selection, Jairus Byrd, played CB at Oregon, but the Bills right away say they’ll plug him in at FS.  And on day two, Buffalo’s 5th round pick, Nic Harris, played mostly Strong Safety at Oklahoma, but the Bills say he’ll be an outside linebacker with them.

These are interesting choices.  First of all, it shows a clear confidence in the coaching staff to tutor young players through the ups and downs of a positoin switch, as they find their way in the NFL.  It can be rough at time.

Second, you wonder if the Bills have time to wait for players to learn their new positions, since they clearly need to win now.  The switch for Wood, from Center to Guard, should be fairly seamless.  But for Byrd, and for the 5th rounder Harris, it may take a little more time.  Despite the pressure to win now, the Bills will have to have some amount of patience with these rookie draft picks.

Let us know what you think.