Archives for March 2, 2012

‘Conventional wisdom ranks Martin as the third-best tackle in the draft. Southern California’s Matt Kalil is the consensus choice as the No. 1 left tackle. Iowa’s Riley Reiff may be No. 2, ahead of Martin. Ohio State’s Mike Adams could move up into the top 15 of the draft, as well. At least one and maybe two of the top nine teams in the draft are expected to take a left tackle.’

‘”We cannot make it happen if it’s not there, and that’s the thing you’ve got to keep in mind,” Nix said when speaking about the idea of taking a defensive end early. “If we go in and say ‘We’ve got to have a pass rusher,’ and we reach down and get one at the tenth pick that we’ve got graded in the third round, then we’re setting ourselves back three or four years.”‘

‘”We need pass rushers, a guy who can set the edge as a defensive end,” Nix said. “(But) I want to make this clear – we can’t reach for a defensive end because we need him.”‘

‘The Bills haven’t ruled out using the franchise tag on Johnson – March 5 is the deadline – but assistant general manager Doug Whaley said on buffalobills.com during a chat with fans that would be a short-term fix and the team is more interested in a long-term contract with Johnson.’

‘”A lot of instances it’s going to be the same guys maybe playing a little different position,” Wannstedt said. “There will be a little bit of a learning curve. The OTAs and the extra days that we can get just to walk through and talk with the players in the offseason are going to be very, very important to us. I’d like to think that not just from a rookie standpoint, but with five rookies playing last year on defense, we are counting on those guys making significant steps upward this year. The offseason is a time where we can make up a lot of ground.”‘

‘”It is absolute. It’s a no,” said Nix. “You’ve got to give up the farm. We’re not in that business.”‘