High Mark

I don’t see why so many people think this is such a crazy idea. With FA likely not happening before that draft – if at all – teams that are looking to fill that one major whole and make a SB run may be willing to move up into the top 5 this year. Couple that with the imminent rookie wage scale (which according to Vonnie Holliday has already been agreed upon between the Owner and Players Union) and teams may have two huge reason to move up this year. The Jets and Bears are two teams who were very close last year and may think that one highly-ranked rookie could get them a ring in 2011. Another idea is trading back with the Phish. All the speculation is that they love Cam Newton. They pick at 15 this year and don’t have a 2nd round pick. They could give up a 2012 1st, and a 2011 3rd in a trade. Then, a team on the decline like the Phish, starting Newton, could very well be drafting top 5 in 2012. Wouldn’t it be ideal to screw a division rival like that? (I am assuming Newton isn’t any good, which is a safe assumption in my view). At 15 a guy like Quinn or JJ Watt may still be available. M. Wilkerson or Carimi or even Phil Taylor are guaranteed to be. 15 is a better slot for a LB value wise. Trading down again or trading back up a bit could be another option too. Locker was never any good. Not this year and not last year. He was never a realistic option for the #1 overall pick. This was painfully obvious to anyone who actually watched him play. This won’t happen to Luck because Luck is actually very good.

Where have you been the last 11 years? He said that last year too, along with the OL (the teams self-admited #1 priority heading into teh draft)

Bowers agent was reportedly setting up workouts for him with all of the top 5 teams. That should mean he comes to Buffalo as long as they oblige.

Im not. I dont like any of these QBs honestly. Kap or Dalton in the 3rd may be worth it but odds are they amount to nothing. I say stick to the DL and OL and wait to get a real QB.

Meh, I still think thats too much for a back up safety. Id rather have GW in there. Give that contract to Florence.

5 years 26 mil per ESPN bottom line. Shockey also signed a 1 yr deal with Carolina.

Im sure he is better than Jeff "On his back" Hangartner

Vonnie Holliday on ESPN just said that one of the only things the players and owner have agreed upon is a rookie wage scale. So it looks like that is a given in the new CBA. I have long accepted that but not everyone has.

Fairley and Phil Taylor. Taylor is a monster and givs us two true NGs and allows us to move KW to DE. Nix said he wants to add 2 DEs this offseason, so one is Fairley and the other is KW. good bye rush defense problems. James Carpenter in the 3rd to start at RT or kick inside to G if he struggles. Herzlich in the 4th will need to strengthen up after his cancer treatments but should be a 8 yr starter at ILB.

In the order I would take them 1- Fairley or Dareus 2- Phill Taylor, Ijelana, Sherrod, Wilkerson, J. Houston, Heyward 3- James Carpenter, K. Sheppard, C. McCarthy, M. Austin, S. Fua, Kendric Burney, J Jenkins 4x2 - Herzlich, USC TE/BBall Player Jordan Cameron, J. Moffit, W. Rackley, J. Brewer, Brooks Reed, Kendrik Ellis, 5- Delone Carter, RB from ‘Cuse 6&7 traded to move up in the 4th and 5th rounds for the players I listed above.

Sucks for the Bills that Bama (Dareus, Carpenter) Cal (Jordan) and Wisc (Watt, Moffit, Carimi) are all on the same day.

2006: Ngata And Mangold (not McCargo- I was actually hoping we would trade up the whole night so we could take Mangold.) 2007: I was so pissed we hadn’t worked a trade up for P Willis, but I figured we could “settle” for Jon Beason 2008: I didn’t think we needed a CB at all, but the one I liked the most was DRC, and Mayocks guy Flowers in rd 2 (weird that both are better than McKelvin eh?). I really wanted a LB like Rivers but he didn’t fall. I was stuck on a bus getting text updates about this draft, and can honestly say I didn’t have 1 single player in mind for this pick, so I went to my default line of thought which is draft a lineman. I bet I would have taken B Albert, Clady, or DRC when it got down to it. Prob Clady because converting college Gs to LTs scares me and I would have resigned Greer so a CB would have been an afterthought. I wanted Limas Sweed and Dan Connor over Hardy/Ellis 2009: Orakpo. He was the #1 overall player on my Big board and I had Maybin in the 6th round lol. With our later pick I would have taken M Johnson or E Brown only because I already knew he hadn’t solved our pass rush issue with Maybin. Both were still available at our 2nd so I wanted them over Byrd too. If we did land Orakpo I would have turned to OL with our 2nd 1st. PS I cant believe we accepted the Eagles 2nd 1st instead of their 1st 1st. Their 1st pick would have been high enough to land Oher. I said it when the trade happened and I mean it – I would have told Andy Reid to eat my sh*t, we will only accept your higher 1st. Oher and Orakpo. 2010: Tebow, Bulaga, Iupati, Pouncy in that order. I list all 4 of those guys because I wasn’t sold on any of them as top 10 picks and would have liked a trade down but would have taken Tebow if I couldn’t. In the 2nd I wanted Gronkowski and in the 3rd I wanted John Jerry (Dolphins starting G this year) My Team – Offense: Mangold Clady Limas Sweed (oops) Oher (or Jason peters still – I would not have accepted the Eagles 2nd 1st) Tebow Gronkowski John Jerry Bills – Offense Late 4th round pick (Lynch) Hardy Ellis Wood Spiller My Team – Defense: Ngata Jon Beason D. Connor Orakpo Michael Johnson ***we still have Greer (and Pat Williams for that matter) Bills – Defense Whitner McCargo McKelvin Maybin Byrd Troupe Carrington I wonder which team would win in a game? It’s pathetic that I can out-draft an entire NFL scouting staff with basic cable and an internet connection . It was no surprise when it happened. Willis had worked out during his college summers with Singlertary 1 v 1. At one point, they quoted Singletary saying something like “If we have the opportunity to add Willis to the 49ers, we will do everything we can to get it done, I can promise you that” That’s why I am pissed the Bills didn’t move up – they knew he was going to be gone. But what angers me more was Marvs comments post draft “We had 3 guys we ere targeting and all 3 made it to us, we took the best one” Really? All 3 guys you wanted were still there? So you weren’t looking at ADRIAN PETERSON or Wills or J Thomas or C Johnson? Wow, just wow.

Von Miller, Peterson, Newton, Green, and Von Miller. All of those guys are over rated, but since I have to pick two of those I guess Ill go Von Miller and Peterson. Green is good so at least if we draft him we will have a good WR. I think Newton will be a bust but it will be more fun playing madden this year with him on the team, and we would be on ESPN and stuff. Miller will likely drop into NFL obscurity once everyone completely forgets about him, and Peterson will move to safety and I doubt be anything special.

He was cut because of $10,000,000 He was an integral part of a SB championship - dont play that down. We would be better off paying Hawk than Kelsay and McCargo and Maybin and Whitner all combined. Shockey, Hawk, Daniel Graham, they are all players who would help this team like crazy. Im sure there are others too. Im not saying go crazy for these guys, just get something!

idealy, we drop back to 5 with Arizona. Assuming we do we arent taking a QB anyways. That leaves the Bungals to take that 1 player we really want, or if there are two guys like we like we dont risk anything. We can only dream buddy figures out how to trade

Good list, but our draft could be anywhere from great to terrible based on some of the guys you listed. PS I love Herzlich but dont see him going until the mid 3rd at earliest with a 4.9 40. I think he will be a stud someday and hope we take him in the 4th, but 2nd is high for him. Carpenter is also a stud OLman and we should go out and get him in a "reach" scenario - whever that is. our 3rd may be too late.

Give him all the money that Kelsay is getting.

To paraphrase Mayock “Nick Fairley can play any position in any front” - as stated on NFL Network. Fairley is most certainly not a 40 front only guy.

I agree with you on this one Kurt. I did think he look very good in his combine workouts and his #s back that up, but that’s no surprise to me. He is a very athletic guy, but there is one glaring weakness in his game. It’s his lack of strength and ability to disengage when he is engaged with an OL. Go watch any video you can find of the guy. If he rushes the passer, and the OT is quick enough to get his hands on him, you can watch him being controlled like a rag doll. Well in the NFL all the LTs are quick – so now whats his plan? This is the same thing that has haunted Maybin – albeit Miller is better than Maybin – its still a glaring issue and should be a huge cause for concern. In the run game it’s the same thing, he is easily handled and moved out of the hole by whoever blocks him. He was abused in the run game vrs Texas the last two years, and Nebraska this year he was being pushed around by a small TE. At one point (I think this is in a youtube clip) he even resorts to turning his back to the RB and trying to spin out of a block as a last resort. Ok, so I realize most people don’t agrea with me about Miller pass rushing ability – but what about his run stopping ability? Surely you can’t be very impressed with that. If you are then the hype machine has truly taken over. Lets not forget we are picking THIRD IN THE DRAFT. Our pick SHOULDN’T HAVE A WEAKNESS vs. the run or the pass (assuming it’s a defensive player) Miller has a glaring weakness v the run, and a huge red flag in his pass rushing style coming into the NFL. I’ll just say it again – the team that takes Miller expecting a hard core pass rusher is going to be very disappointed. I feel Miller would be best used as a Will LB in a 4-3, were he would rarely have to take on blockers and could use his near-elite athleticism to track down ball carriers.

Fairley is as close to Ndomakong Suh as you can get. He isn’t quite that good but he is damn close, and coming out a year earlier than Suh, he may be at that level in a year or so. FYI Suh has 10 sacks and may have been the best interior lineman in the NFL last year. If Fairley is have as good he will be worth #3.

Again, its not hindsight at all. Spiller was easily top 10? Well he went at 9, if we passed on him like we should have (I said all along he wasn’t a 1st round talent, not hindsight.) then I guess you assume he was so must-have that the Jags would have snapped him up? I bet not. That “easily” puts him out of the top ten. I already said I doubt the Chargers would have taken a gimmick back, and I doubt the 9ers trade up for him and not Davis. I don’t think you see the Eagles take him at 13 either. In fact, I could argue that he doesn’t go before 30 – where Javid Best went (all off season I said Best was a better prospect than Spiller). Sure the media may not have thought it was possible, but they also thought Clausen was a top 10 pick too. Get my point? Just because the media think guys are top 10 picks, doesn’t make them top 10 picks, and just because the Bills took Spiller at 9, doesn’t mean another team woulda taken him at 10 or 11 or 12 if they had the chance. If we took Clausen at 9 (not a stretch at all at the time, according to the same people who loved on Spiller) me and you could be having the same argument about him…. You saying he was an easy top ten pick and me saying he coulda fallen to 30 or later if we passed on him. Who knows what coulda happened, but regardless of what media pundits think, gimmick RBs are not top 10 picks. Ever, end of discussion.

I agree St. Lou. Fairley is the clear cut best player in my mind. I don’t care that he is dirty (in fact that makes me like him more) Dareus is a close second but everyone else is a distant 3rd. Depending on your scheme/front I guess some teams may like Dareus more, but when you leave schemes out of it and just look at them I think Fairly wins. Knowing the Bills draft history as I do, I am very confident that at least one of these two will be passed on by Buffalo for one of the guys I already know will not be very good/is horribly over rated. This will cause me to be furious on draft day and create more enemies on the board by arguing with the posters who instantly fall in love with whomever the Bills draft, or the ones who were already in love with a bad player. Then somewhere between 6-24 months later all the posters will start to agree with my original thoughts on said player and the Bills will be drafting in the top 10 again, thinking back “If we only drafted Fairely/Dareus”… and the circle of life continues.

I think you may be the only person on the planet that thinks none of the front 7 players are worthy of the 3rd pick. McShay says Bowers could be the 1st overall pick Kiper says Fairly Mayock says Quinn, and also has Dareus ahead of Fairley in his rankings (so exo-facto Dareus could also be the #1 overall pick) I havent heard of anyone saying Peterson could be the #1 overall pick (could have missed it, but I havent heard it) Besides, Peterson and Green are only two players. Just by the math there has to be at least 3 players worthy of the 3rd pick. Are you saying all 4 of those guys I mentioned as possible #1 overall picks are not worthy as the 3rd? FWIW a CB has never been taken higher than 3rd, so we are essentially saying Peterson is the best CB to ever come out of college by taking him at 3. I personally dont think he is that great. I agree 100% I watched a few of his games and he wasnt too impressive, giving 8+ yard cushions on most downs. I dont know why such a good CB would do that? If his coach is telling him to do that what does his coach know that we all dont? I understand they may not want to get beat deep, but when a guy runs a 4.3 and is that good, he can play tight to the WR AND not get beat deep. Now I hear all these pundits saying that he is a great bump and run man cover guy…. How do they know? He rarely did it! And Palumalo had a TD pass thrown on him because the Steelers didnt get a good pass rush :-) I can't figure out if you are Dick jauron of Russ Brandon. The Bills have proven that good lines still win games. PS: we were only close in that Steelers game because KW (a Dlineman) completely owned the Steelers G Kaomaeto or whatever his name is (he is an O Lineman). Without KW we lose that game by 30 points. The battle in the trenches kept it close. Nothing else. O, and pressure on the QB is also why the Packers beat the Steelers in the Superbowl. Football is very simple and it doesnt change. Blocking. Tackling. Quaterback. The Bills have sucked at all 3 for a long freaking time, and drafting guys like Peterson who are over rated CBs will not help us at all.

Where did he say that? I sure hope he does

Exactly, we could have taken Spiller after the Chargers took Mathews. Do you really think the Chargers were going to take Spiller to replace LT? Especially when they have Sproles already? Face it, a lot of teams shy away from players who cant play every down, and Spiller is one of those players. Do you really think a team that drafts like the Chargers do was going to take a gummick "water bug" RB? So you have 1 half-bust who is a back up (bush) 2 former 1st round picks who have never been that great (D Brown and Addai) and did almost nothing to help them win the SB, and one guy (mendenhall) who plays for the Steelers who routinely use 3 RBs and have for years. So yea, RBs are not that important. The last team a real run-heavy 1 RB team won the SB was what, the Broncos in '98? They had a HOF QB too.