Archives for May 1, 2006

‘”Well, for one thing, when you talk about history, that’s a long time. Current history isn’t the same. The game is evolving to a degree and safeties who can do a couple of things for you continue to be valuable. Without going into all the wideout formations and open sets and all the things defensive coordinators are faced with, safeties have to get into the coverage. They aren’t the old walk-down-into-the-box safety. You need coverage ability and he has that. I know what you’re saying, but that trend has been broken a bit.” — Bills assistant general manager Tom Modrak responding to the rare selection of a strong safety in the Top 10 (Donte Whitner).’

‘The Buffalo Bills may have made their defense far better this past weekend, but no team will ever win without a great quarterback, with the exception of the 1985 Chicago Bears and 2000 Baltimore Ravens , but even they had wise veterans. In 2006, the Bills better hope one of their three quarterbacks becomes a star, otherwise they’ll wonder what could have been as they left the draft’s best quarterback, Matt Leinart, on the board.’

‘It would be hard to overlook the Bills last pick, offensive guard Aaron Merz 6’3, 348 pounds, adds more beef to the o-line.’

‘The Bills then used the first pick in the fifth round (acquired for Eric Moulds) to select LSU defensive tackle Kyle Williams, who GM Marv Levy compared to Phil Hansen.’

‘The Bills second choice in the 5th round was their first offensive selection, as they grabbed offensive tackle Brad Butler, a 6-7, 310 pounder from Virginia (143 overall).’

‘The Bills have six total picks on the day. With their first selection of the day (pick #105) Buffalo chose to go with one of the best players left on their board and took South Carolina safety Ko Simpson. Buffalo had a Day One grade on Simpson and were surprised to see him available.’

‘"We went with quality with those first five picks," he said. "We clearly had needs on the defensive side, but that’s not how we made our picks."’

‘”We needed to bring some fresh air to the defense and I think we did,” Fewell said late Saturday evening after the Bills used their first three selections on defensive players. “I’m a little more pumped up than I was 24 hours ago because we addressed one or two needs in free agency. And I think today we went out and made a statement that, `Hey, we want to play some solid defense.'”‘