Pros and cons of Buffalo Bills picking Clemson football's Baylon Spector in 2022 NFL Draft
Clemson football’s Baylon Spector was selected by the Buffalo Bills Saturday in the seventh round of the 2022 NFL Draft.
The Bills tabbed Spector with the 10th pick of the round, 231st overall. He was the 21st inside linebacker to be picked in the 2022 Draft.
Spector will join fellow Clemson product Shaq Lawson, a seventh-year defensive end, in Buffalo.
Spector, who capped his career by being a two-year starter at weakside linebacker for the Tigers, formed half of a linebacker tandem with James Skalski that Coach Dabo Swinney referred to as “The Bruise Brothers.”
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Spector ranked second on the team in tackles behind Skalski last season with 85, including 19 against N.C. State – the highest total by a player under Swinney and the most by a Clemson player since 2002.
The positives
“Baylon is just a super high-character kid,” said Matt Gates, a trainer who worked with Spector at XPE Sports in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
He also tested well at the NFL Combine.
“He ran unbelievably well at Indianapolis,” Gates said. “His official time was a 4.60, which at his size is a great time, but the majority of scouts I spoke to had in the mid-4.5s. He jumped well, he did everything well.”
The concerns
NFL.com analyst Lance Zierlein refers to the 6-foot, 233-pound Spector as “an average athlete with average size, but struggles to attack and unglue from blocks on a consistent enough basis.”
Zierlein also is concerned by what he perceives as Spector’s lack of range in coverage and lack of twitch “to burst and disrupt at the catch point.”
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Spector also may not have the skill set to emerge as a key linebacker for the Bills and may be destined for more of a special teams role.
Final thoughts
Spector’s father, Robbie, was a wide receiver at Clemson from 1988-90 and Spector’s younger brother, Brannon, is a junior wide receiver at Clemson, so Baylon is attempting to jump-start an NFL legacy for the family.
“He’s a reliable worker-bee linebacker who plays with impressive instincts and fundamentals that keep him in position and near the action,” Zierlein said.
Those attributes alone should be enough to justify the Bills' selection of Spector.
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Buffalo Bills pick Clemson's Baylon Spector in 2022 NFL Draft
